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SHORT HISTORY 



OF THE 



CONFEDERATE STATES 
OF AMERICA 






JEFFERSON DAVIS 



Prosperum et felix scelus virtus vacatur. — 

Sknkca 



NEW YORK 

, BELFORD COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
i8-22 East i8th Street 

1890 

[Publishers of Belford's Magazine] 






Copyright, i8go 
FERSON DAVIS 



« ^ C 



TR0W8 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 



-70 ' ■'-, 



CONTENTS. ■^-'^ 



rAGB 

Introduction, i 



PART . 

BEFORE SECESSION' 

CHAPT' 1. 
Causes of the War between the S ates, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
Negro Slavery and the Slave-ti, .i . . ... 13 

CHAPTER III. 
The Extension of Slavery, 15 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Missouri Compromise, 17 

CHAPTER V. 
The Compromise Measures, 21 

CHAPTER VI. 
Politics in Mississippi, . . . ' .23 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Kansas-Nebraska Troubles, . .'~~ 25 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Abolition Movement, .... ..... 28 

CHAPTER IX. 
.xN Brown Raid, , .31 

CHAPTER X. 
x.etrospect, 33 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. PAGE 

Preliminary Preparations for Defence, 37 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Close of i860, 40 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Secession of South Carolina, 43 

CHAPTER XIV. 
General Principles, 48 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Right of Secession, 50 



PART 11. 

SECESSION AND CONFEDERATION. 



CHAPTER I. 



Early Days of Secession, 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Bombardment of Fort Sumter, . 



5' 



CHAHER II. 
Fort Sumter, eg 

CHAPTER III. 
Progress of Secession, . cq 

^'^CHAPTER IV. 
The Confederate Cabinet and Congress, 61 

CHAPTER V. 
Some Northern Protests, , g. 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Confederate Constitution, gq 

CHAPTER VII. 
Negotiations with the Federal Government, . . , .68 



71 



CONTENTS. Vii 

PART III. 

THE WAR. 

CHAPTER I. PAGE 

South Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia, 72 

CHAPTER II. 
Confederate Preparations for Defence, 74 

CHAPTER III. 
Organization of our Resources, 76 

CHAPTER IV. 
Federal Oppressions in Maryland, 79 

CHAPTER V. 
The Battle of Manassas, 82 

CHAPTER VI. 
Neutrality of Kentucky 86 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Contest in Missouri, 90 

CHAPTER VIII. 
General Albert Sidney Johnston, 92 

CHAPTER IX. 
Federal Outrages in Missouri, ....,«.. 94 

CHAPTER X. 
Missouri Disarmed, 97 

CHAPTER XI. 
Military Operations in Missouri, 100 

CPIAPTER XII. 
Confederate Aid to Missouri, 103 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Operations of Generals Wise, Floyd, and Lee, .... 106 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Arrest of Mason and Slidell, no 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XV. PAGB 

Our Deficient Ordnance Supplies, "3 

CHAPTER XVL 
The Confederate Financial System, 121 

CHAPTER XVn. 
Reforms in the Military Legislation, 124 

CHAPTER XVHI. 
Federal Hostilities and Usurpations, .126 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Forts Henry and Donelson Surrendered, 131 

CHAPTER XX. 
Trans-Mississippi Military Operations, 139 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Battle of Shiloh, 143 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Further Military Events in the West 148 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Naval Operations in the East, 152 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Opening of the Peninsular Campaign, 155 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign, 160 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
The Battle of Seven Pines, 170 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
The Battle of New Cold Harbor, 175 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Battles of Frazier's Farm and Malvern Hill, . . . 184 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Federal Legislative Usurp.\tions igj 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER XXX. page 

Federal Executive Usurpations, 198 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Confederate Naval Operations, 201 li>^ 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Confederate Naval Operations in the West, .... 215 ^--^ 

, CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Naval Affairs in the West, 226 ^-^ 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
The Confederate Navy on the High Seas 238 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Federal Appeals to Europe not to Aid "Pirates," , , . 256 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 
The Military Government of States, ...... 263 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
Progress of Centralization, 268 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Military Operations in Virginia, 273 

CHAPTER XXXIX, 
War Transferred to the Frontier, ,....., 284 

CHAPTER XL. 
The Battle of Antietam, 289 

CHAPTER XLI. 
Treasury Regulations and the Cotton Famine, .... 298 

CHAPTER XLII. 
Military Operations in Virginia, 303 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
Our Foreign Relations, 316 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
Military Operations in the West 322 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLV. page 

Naval and Military Operations on the Mississippi, . . . 328 

CHAPTER XLVl. 
The Campaign against Vicksburg, 335 

CHAPTER XLVH. 
The Defence of Vicksburg, 338 

CHAPTER XLVHI. 
Surrender of Port Hudson, 341 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
The Battle of Chickamauga, 342 

CHAPTER L. 
Missionary Ridge, 346 

CHAPTER LI. 
The Battle of Gettysburg, 348 

CHAPTER LH. 
After Gettysburg, 354 

CHAPTER LIH. 
The Subjugation of Tennessee and Louisiana, .... 356 

CHAPTER LIV. 
The Subjugation of Maryland, 362 

CHAPTER LV. 
The Subjugation of Kentucky, 366 

CHAPTER LVL 
The Subjugation of Missouri, 360 

CHAPTER LVIL 
The Subjugation of the State of New York, 371 

CHAPTER LVIIL 
The Military Commission at Washington, 378 

CHAPTER LIX. 

Free Speech Suppressed in the North 382 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER LX. pack 

Military Operations in Virginia, 384 

CHAPTER LXI. 
Butler Bottled Up 387 

CHAPTER LXII. 
The Battles of the Wilderness, ....... 393 

CHAPTER LXin. 
Early's Advance on Washington and Chambersburg, . . , 402 

CHAPTER LXIV. 
Battle of Winchester, 408 

CHAPTER LXV. 
Military Operations after Winchester .411 

CHAPTER LXVI. 
The Red River Campaign, 414 

CHAPTER LXVII. 
Fort Pillow, . 416 

CHAPTER LXVIII. 
Johnston's Retrogressive Campaign, 418 

CHAPTER LXIX. 
The Fall of Atianta, 423 

CHAPTER LXX. 
Hood's Campaign from Atlanta to Nashville, .... 426 

CHAPTER LXXI. 
Sherman's March to the Sea, 429 

CHAPTER LXXn. 
The Battle of Nashville, 435 

CHAPTER LXXIII. 
Exchange of Prisoners . 437 

CHAPTER LXXIV. 
Federal Barbarities, and Threatened Retaliation, . . 443 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LXXV. pack 

Mission of Vice-President Stephens, 416 

CHAPTER LXXVI. 
War Prisons, Northern and Southern, 449 

CHAPTER LXXVn. 
Abortiyk Negotiations, . . 454 

CHAPTER LXXVHL 
Sherman's March Northward, 463 

CHAPTER LXXIX. 
Siege of Petersburg, . 467 

CHAPTER LXXX. 
Fort Fisher, 474 

CHAPTER LXXXI. 
Evacuation of Petersburg, 476 

CHAPTER LXXXII. 
Evacuation of Richmond, 479 

CHAPTER LXXXIIL 
The Surrender at Appomattox, 481 

CHAPTER LXXXIV. 
Evacuation of Richmond, ......... 483 

CHAPTER LXXXV. 
Surrender of General Johnston, 487 

CHAPTER LXXXVI. 
Capture of President Davis, 491 

CHAPTER LXXXVH. 
The Cost of the War; and the Northern Methods of Warfare, . 500 

CHAPTER LXXXVHL 
Re-establishmeut of the Union by Force, 503 [ 



INTRODUCTION. 



The vindication of the Southern States for their Ordi- 
nances of Secession in 1861 involves two considerations, 
namely : their rightful power to withdraw from the Union 
into which they had entered by voluntary compact ; and the 
causes that justified the exercise of that power. 

In treating this question in its twofold aspect, the legal 
and the moral, it is not intended to vex the weary ear by 
adducing time-worn arguments ; but, believing the case to be 
one which must be adjusted finally by historical facts, the 
candid reader is asked, without favor or prejudice, to make a 
decision on the unquestionable record. 

The British Colonies of North America — subsequently 
the United States — had a common allegiance to the British 
Crown. Otherwise they were as distinct from one another as 
they were from Canada, Nova Scotia, and the American 
islands owned by Great Britain. When, by the violation of 
both charter and inalienable rights, for which neither redress 
nor security against repetition could be obtained, some of the 
colonies decided to sever their connection with the British 
Crown, they formed an alliance, declared themselves free and 
independent States, and, with their united strength, made 
such vigorous resistance to the efforts of the Mother Country 
to reduce them to subjection that, finally, a Treaty of Peace 
was made, in September, 1783, in the following words : 

"Article I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the 
said United States, viz. : New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut and 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

free, sovereign, and independent States ; that he treats with 
them as such," etc., etc. 

It has been contended that, although the States were sev- 
erally named, the recognition was to the Union, not merely 
as the negotiating agent, but as the supreme authorit)'-. 

The fallacy of this assumption is shown by the provisions 
of Articles V. and VII., recognizing the separate, independent 
power of the respective States to provide for the restitution 
of all estates, rights, and properties which had been confis- 
cated, belonging to real British subjects ; and also of the es- 
tates, rights,. and properties of persons resident in districts in 
the possession of His Majesty's arms, and who had not borne 
arms against the said United States, etc. 

"Article XI I. There shall be a ifirm and perpetual peace 
between His Britannic Majesty and the said States, and be- 
tween the subjects of the one and the citizens of the other. 
. And His Britannic Majesty shall also order and 
cause all archives, records, deeds, and papers belonging to any 
of the said States, or to their citizens, which, in the course of 
the war, may have fallen into the hands of his officers, to be 
forthwith restored and delivered to the proper States and 
persons to whom they belonged." 

The States, now recognized as free and independent, had, 
in November, 1777, agreed upon "Articles of Confederation 
and Perpetual Union," which were referred to the Legislatures 
of the several States, and, being duly approved, were adopted 
by the Congress on the 9th day of July, 1778. 

From these " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union " the subjoined extracts are made : 

" Article I. The style of this Confederacy shall be, the 
United States of America." 

"Article II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, 
and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right 
which is not by the Confederation delegated to the United 
States in Congress assembled." 

" Article X. In determining questions in the United 
States, in Congress assembled, each State shall have one 
vote." 

"Article XIII. Each State shall abide by the dctermi- 



^lr<X V-. V-*A V"^ INTRODyCTION. . - • , 3 

nations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all 
questions which by this Confederation is submitted to them. 
And the articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably ob- 
served by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual ; nor , 
shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of '-^'^^'^ 
them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of then'^*'-^*-' *-Ktr 
United States and be afterward confirmed by the Legislature n^^^ Qfi. "^ 
of every State." ^; ^^1 ^ , 

Our heroic ancestors, against fearful odds, had staked all 
that men hold most dear in the War for Independence. By 
unexampled sacrifices they gained that priceless possession. 
But a long, exhausting war left them poor and heavily en- S''*''*^'^. 
cumbered by debts, to provide for which the Confederation ^..^"^jg, V 
had little power. The western lands, for the time unpro-,,. (.^c. . 
ductive of revenue but of great prospective value, were 
covered by claims of several States. These were, in some 
cases, conflicting, and, because of vaguely defined territorial 
limits and questionable title, the controversies were of such 
difificult adjustment that they continued after the war had 
ended. 

Happily, the patriotism of the people came to the relief 
of the General Government and terminated the disputes by 
the cession of unoccupied lands to be disposed of for the 
public good. 

The Congress applied to the States for a grant of power 
to regulate foreign trade and commerce, and to impose duties 
on imports to obtain the needed revenue. It was not found 
possible to obtain the unanimous assent of the States, and the 
current of events, including the hostile commercial policy of 
England, rendering the grant more and more obviously neces- 
sary to the general welfare, the Congress, on February 21, 

1787, 

" Resolved, That it is expedient that, on the second Mon- 
day of May next, a convention of delegates, who shall have 
been appointed by the several States, be held in Philadelphia, 
for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of 
Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several leg- 
islatures such alterations and provisions thereon as shall, when 
agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Govern- 
ment and the preservation of the Union." 

This resolution has been quoted at length because it 
declares the sole purpose to be to revise the Articles of Con- 
federation and recognizes the supremacy of the States as the 
power to confirm the resolution to be submitted to their 
several legislatures. And it is to be remembered that it re- 
quired the tmanijnous assent of the States to make any alter- 
ation in the Articles of Confederation. 

When the delegates met in convention, discussion devel- 
oped the impracticability of amending the Articles of Con- 
federation so as to make them adequate to the exigencies of 
government, and the convention proceeded to devise a new 
form of Federal Constitution. There was a well-grounded 
apprehension that no instrument granting the powers deemed 
essential would receive unanimous confirmation by the States ; 
and it was provided, by Article XII, , that 

" The ratification of the Convention of nine States shall be 
sufficient for the establishment of the Constitution between 
the States so ratifying the same." 

Therefore the names of the States were not written in the 
preamble, as they had been in the first draft of the Constitu- 
tion, and as had been done in the Articles of Confederation, 
but only the general expression, " We, the People of the 
United States," which could mean no more or less than the 
people of the ratifying States. 

If it be asked how could nine States consistently secede 
from the " Confederation and Perpetual Union," of which 
they were a component part, and the terms of which Union 
could not be altered unless such alteration should " be con- 
firmed by the Legislature of every State," it is submitted, as 
an answer to the question, that the States, that is, the people 
of each State, had never surrendered their Sovereignty, and, 
by virtue of it, if the Government failed to fulfil the end for 
which it was established, they had the unalienable right to 
"alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, lay- 
ing its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers 
in such form, as to them should seem most likely to effect 
their safety and happiness." 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

In Convention it was agreed that such States as chose, not 
less than nine in number, might establish a new form of gov- 
ernment ; which necessarily involved separation from some of 
their associates in the Union which they had covenanted 
should be perpetual. George Washington presided over their 
Convention, and transmitted the Constitution drafted by it 
to the several States, to be ratified or rejected by the people 
of each State in convention assembled. 

The duty assigned to him was not perfunctorily performed; 
but, deeply anxious for the formation of the more perfect 
Union projected, which rested on the power of a State to 
secede from the old Union, and to accede to the new one — as 
provided by the closing Article (VII.) of the Constitution as 
submitted to the States — he exerted his great influence to 
secure ratification by the requisite number of States for the 
" establishment of the Constitution between the States so 
ratifying the same." In one of his letters he asks " what the 
opponents of the Constitution in Virginia would do if nine 
other States should accede to the Constitution ?" * 

After a time the Constitution was ratified by eleven States, 
and the " more perfect Union " was organized, leaving two 
States — North Carolina and Rhode Island — sole representa- 
tives of the Confederation which had raised the Colonies to 
statehood and independence. The position of these two 
States conclusively proves that the sovereignty of each State r ■^'^-''^ ■ ._ , 
was an admitted fact, and that it was a voluntary compact to , 

which their assent was requested and from which it was with- i^'\f^^>^"^^'>■*^■^ ^ 
held. -iW^A.d-'^ 

The power of the States, in whole or in part, to withdraw. ,v,.t^ .U^\<4i^ 
from the Union of the Confederation, in 1787, has been con- 1 1 1^.. , 

ceded by the succeeding generations, and the causes which led ' 
to the act have, in like manner, been admitted to be an all-suf- 
ficient justification. 

And this fact suggests the inquiry. Did the States, by the 
adoption of the new form of government, deprive themselves 
of that power ? and if not, did there exist, in 1861, justifiable 
causes for its exercise ? 

* See his letter to Lafayette. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

Article X., in amendment of the Constitution (the more 
entitled to consideration because it was one of the conditions 
on which the Constitution was ratified), is in these words : 

" TJie powers not delegated to the Ujiited States by the Con- 
stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 
States respectively or to the people^'' 

If nowhere is to be found the delegation by the States 
of sovereignty to the United States, that remained with the 
States, severally, to be exercised thereafter as it had been in 
1787. 

Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, said, in reference to the 
power of nine States to withdraw from the Confederation : 
" If nine out of thirteen can dissolve the compact, six out of 
nine will be just as able to dissolve the new one hereafter." 
Certainly the act of withdrawal, as provided, was to be by 
the States severally. The number agreeing to withdraw in- 
volved the power to maintain the new government, not the 
right of each to separate itself from the old one. That was 
a function of Sovereignty, and the terms of the Constitution 
recognized the right of each State to exercise it ; and to Mr. 
Gerry's contention it might be answered, the power inher- 
ently belongs not to a majority, but to each State. 

It has sometimes been argued that the powers delegated 
by the States to the Federal Government included such as 
were only exercised by sovereigns. It suffices for the pres- 
ent to say that so did those which had been delegated to 
the Congress of the Confederation, 

The consideration of the second branch of the inquiry 
involves a comparison between the causes which led to seces- 
sion in 1787 and 1861. In the former case the inefficiency of 
the Articles of Confederation for some of the purposes of the 
General Government was presented as the reason for requir- 
ing its amendment ; and the Convention, when it assembled, 
proceeded to draft a new form of government which, being 
submitted and adopted, became the Constitution for a more 
perfect Union. In the latter case, the destruction of the 
balance of power which existed when the Constitution was 
adopted, and subsequent legislation for sectional advantages 
rather than the general welfare, together with gross and per- 



ttv^liir SlMt4.^. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

sistent violations of obligations which the States had assumed 
in the formation of the compact of Union, added to increasing 
hostility, shamefully displayed, and culminating in invasion, 
had at length created a feeling that the fraternity in which 
the Union was founded had ceased to exist — that the Union 
was no longer one of the heart. In these circumstances a 
president was elected by a strictly sectional vote — a man 
who had declared that the Union could not continue to exist 
"half slave, half free ; " whose party dogma was the exclusion 
of slave-holders from the territory belonging in common to 
the States, and whose partisans hurled bitterest denunciations 
and derisive anathemas on the flag of the Union. 

The South, as a minority, was naturally attached to the 
Constitution, as a guarantee of equal rights and protection to 
public and private interests. Her sons had gathered much 
glory under the flag of the Union ; it was an emblem of free 
and independent States, and was the object of pride and 
affection to her people. A very large majority of her people 
believed secession to be a remedy that could be peacefully 
exercised. The Southern States, one after another, passed 
Ordinances of Secession, but they made no adequate prepara- 
tions for war, because it was generally believed none were 
necessary. At the instance of Virginia, leading now for peace 
as she had led for war in the revolutionary era, a call was 
issued inviting the States to a convention for the purpose 
of securing peace to the Union. The Convention met at 
Washington, D. C, on February 4, i86i,a majority of North- 
ern and Northwestern States and eight of the Southern States 
being represented. The effort of the wise and patriotic mem- 
bers to secure some proper adjustment of existing issues 
proved unsuccessful. 

The States that had seceded met at Montgomery, Ala., 
February 4, 1861, formed a Provisional Government by their 
delegates in Congress assembled, and by them a president 
and a vice-president were elected, and the Provisional Gov- 
ernment was inaugurated on the i8th of the same month. 

Immediately thereafter commissioners were sent to Wash- 
ington with authority to negotiate with the Federal Govern- 
ment for a settlement of all issues between it and the seceded 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

States on the basis of equality and goodwill. These efforts, 
which continued to the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's term 
and into the administration of Mr. Lincoln, proved as unpro- 
ductive of the desired fruit as had the Peace Congress ; and 
yet there were not wanting those among us who believed that 
the Federal Government, having no grant in the Constitution 
to use force against a State, would not attempt invasion, but, 
as did General Jackson, would limit their operations to col- 
lecting revenue from the outside of Southern ports. 



PART I. 

BEFORE SECESSION. 



CHAPTER I. 

CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES. 

Ignorance and credulity have enabled unscrupulous par- 
tisans so to mislead public opinion, both at home and abroad, 
as to create the belief that the institution of African slavery 
was the chief cause, instead of being a mere incident in the 
group of causes, which led to war. In keeping with the 
first misrepresentation was that of the position assigned to 
the belligerent parties. Thus, the North is represented as 
having fought for the emancipation of the African slaves, and 
the South for the increase and extension of the institution 
of African servitude as it existed in the Southern States. 
Therein is a twofold fallacy. First, the dominant party at 
the North, in 1861, through their exponent, President Lin- 
coln, declared, in his inaugural message, as follows : 

" I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. 
I believe I have no lawful right to do so ; and I have no in- 
clination to do so." 

This declaration was reinforced by quoting from the plat- 
form of the political convention which nominated him, an 
emphatic resolution, in these words : 

^^ Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of 
the States, and especially the right of each State to order and 
control its own domestic institutions according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on 



lO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric 
depends ; and we denounce the lawless invasion, by armed 
force, of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under 
what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes." 

Fitly, as to time and occasion, was the armed invasion of 
a State denounced as among the gravest of crimes, and so it 
remains, whether or not a State's secession should be an ac- 
complished fact. If the State were still in the Union, it was a 
crime against the Constitution, which did not grant power to 
coerce a State (indeed the convention which formed that 
Constitution refused to give that power) ; if a State had with- 
drawn from the Union, it was a crime against humanity and 
justice to make war upon a neighbor's late associate for the 
exercise of that sovereign right : in either case it was a crime 
against the hopes of mankind in destroying the fairest pros- 
pect for the success of federative government and substituting 
the theory of force for that of consent. 

When Mr. Lincoln endorsed that resolution and incorpo- 
rated it in his inaugural the effect was like a rift in the cloud 
while the storm and darkness were gathering, and the words 
closely following were the more cheering because of the prev- 
alent belief in his rugged honesty. Pity that the confidence 
should have been impaired by subsequent passages in his 
address, and that the past and passing acts and avowals of his 
party gave no reasonable expectation that he would be able 
to execute his declared policy ! 

Federation had so generally proved a failure that the 
world had become distrustful of it ; but its success in the 
United States had revived the hopes of those who saw in it 
the best mode of securing community welfare and happiness. 
It was therefore most proper to denounce as among- tJie grav- 
est of crimes the armed invasion of any State ; for their con- 
quest would be the extinguishment of the beacon which was 
illuminating the world by the rays of federal liberty. 

If additional evidence be needed to prove that " emanci- 
pation " was not an original purpose, it may be found not 
only in the inaugural, but also in the fact that President Lin- 
coln subsequently defended the issuance of his emancipation 
proclamation, in 1863, on the ground of "military necessity." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



II 



Therefore, the North could not have entered upon the war 
to abolish Slavery. Developments in the course of the war 
cannot be transplanted to its beginning, and then be made to 
do duty as the cause. 

The Southern States could not have contemplated war 
as a means of defending her citizens against the evasion of 
their duty by the Northern States in the matter of fugitives 
from service or labor, nor because of lawless criminals who 
were secretly instigated to disturb the peace and property of 
border residents. Equally unfounded is any accusation that 
the South desired to increase the number of African slaves by 
importation. Her whole history from the colonial times, 
when Southern colonies opposed the slave-trade, in which 
Old England and New England were engaged, refutes the base 
and baseless reflection. The Constitution of the Confederate i 
States gave no years of grace to the slave-trade, but forbade / 
it immediately, from any foreign country other than the slave-ji 
holding States and Territories of the United States, and gavej! 
to Congress the power to prohibit the introduction of slaves ; 
from the Federal States or Territories. No more need be' 
said as to increase. 

The next point is extension. This is based on the asser- 
tion of the equal right of all citizens in and to the territory 
belonging to the United States. This equality, it was con- 
tended, carried with it the right of such citizen, migrating to 
a territory, to take with him any kind of property lawfully 
held in the State from which he migrated. This was a claim 
reasonably deduced from the fact that the Territories belonged 
to the States in common, and the denial of it was resisted 
because of its unequality and was an offensive discrimination. 
There could have been little, if any, pecuniary inducement to 
take slaves into the Northwest Territory. Persons migrating 
from the Southern States would probably desire to take with 
them their domestics, to whom they were personally attached ; 
but the same climatic causes which had led to the transfer 
of African slaves from the Northeast to the South would 
have prevented the permanent establishment of the institu- 
tion of Slavery in the States which might arise out of its 
Western Territories. What, then, was the objection ? The 



X^ 



iUwfnv 



, f y. 



12 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

transfer from a Southern State to a Western Territory would 
certainly not increase the number, and dispersion could only 
lead to comfort and harmony. If the purpose was, as some 
extremists asserted, to confine the institution until, by its 
density, slaves should become unprofitable — that is, until their 
labor should no longer enable the master adequately to pro- 
vide for them, and want should compel emancipation — the 
humane man, looking at all the progressive stages of suffering 
and consequent crime to which this programme inevitably 
would tend, might ask, Is this the feast which philanthropy 
has spread for us ? 



Ij^ i\L>-i^ /vM^fft^ cx) d^ , 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 13 



CHAPTER II. 

NEGRO SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE. 

The existence of African servitude gave rise to acrimonious 
political discussions long before the secession of the Southern 
States in 1861 ; and, owing to persistent misrepresentations 
and a general misunderstanding of the true nature and char- 
acter of the questions growing out of the institution, the mis- 
conceptions that have been engendered not in our own coun- 
try only, but, still more, abroad, have tended and still tend to 
mislead the judgment of the world in arriving at a correct ap- 
prehension of the causes of the war between the States and of 
the controversies that preceded it. It is important, therefore, 
at the very outset, to have a right understanding of the nature 
of those questions, and to show by a brief retrospect that the 
contest had no just application whatever to the essential 
merits of freedom and slavery ; that no moral or sentimental 
considerations were really involved in either the earlier or 
later controversies which, after fiercely agitating, finally dis- 
rupted, the Union ; that they were simply political struggles 
between sections with diverse institutions and conflicting in- 
terests. 

At the time of the adoption of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, under which the War of Independence was waged, 
slavery existed in all the States that were parties to that com- 
pact. The slaves, however, were comparatively numerous in 
the Southern and few in the Northern States, This diversity 
was caused by differences of climate, soil, and industrial inter- 
ests. Slave labor was profitable in the South and unprofita- 
ble in the North. No ethical consideration contributed to 
this diversity, for at that period moral scruples had not ap- 
peared as a factor in the problem. The same industrial inter- 
ests that had checked the introduction of slave labor in the 



14 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

North and fostered it in the South, impelled the Northern 
States gradually to abolish slavery ; although, at the same 
time, they did not inhibit Northern merchants from prose- 
cuting the slave-trade in Northern ships between Africa and 
Southern ports until the traffic was forever prohibited by the 
Southern States themselves. 

The Constitution forbade any Federal interference with 
the slave-trade prior to 1808. But, during the intervening 
period of more than twenty years, every Southern State had 
enacted laws prohibiting the importation of slaves. Virginia 
was the first of all the States of the Union to prohibit the 
slave-trade, and Georgia the first to abolish it by constitu- 
tional enactment. 

In 1807, availing itself of the earliest moment at which 
the constitutional restriction ceased to be operative, Congress, 
with great unanimity — by a vote of 113 yeas to 5 * nays — 
passed an act prohibiting the future importation. 

The slave-trade was thus finally abolished, and has never 
since had any legal existence in any of the States. 

The question of the maintenance or extinction of the system 
of negro slavery in any State was one exclusively belonging 
to such State. It follows that no subsequent question, legiti- 
mately arising in Federal legislation, could properly have any 
reference to the merits or the policy of the institution itself. 
A few zealots in the North afterward created much agitation by 
demands for the abolition of slavery within the States by 
Federal intervention, and by their activity and perseverance 
finally became a recognized party, which, holding the balance 
of power between the two great political organizations in the 
North, gradually obtained the control of one, and to no small 
degree corrupted the other. The dominant purpose, however 
— the object at least of the absorbed party — was sectional 
aggrandizement looking to absolute control. 

Theirs, therefore, is the responsibility for the war that 
resulted. 

* It is noteworthy, as showing the absence of any sectional division of senti- 
ment at that period, that these five dissentients were divided as nearly as possible 
between the two sections ; two of them were from New England and three from 
the South. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I 5 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY, 

The fervid phraseology of the period is essentially decep- 
tive, and has done much to confuse the perceptions and mis- 
lead the sympathies of the world with the struggles of the 
South for equality of rights within the Union, and for security 
with independence by secession. No charge was more unjust, 
for example, than the accusation that the South sought the 
"extension of slavery" when it insisted on equal rights in the 
Territories. The question was merely whether the slave-holder 
"^ J should be permitted to go with his slaves into territory (the 

common property of all) into which the non-slave-holder could ^ « 
'" I go with his property of any sort. It was simply a question of/ X*^,p'*^<Sf 
, <\M ^]^g dispersion of slaves rather than of the " extension of slav-/ \^>-^^ ^ 
^'>\t/t-^''€iy." Removal is not extension. \ iv<<^-<f^*^ 

vkJC This distinction between the two policies — essentially dif- 1' 
C ferent although so generally confounded — was early and clearly 

drawn during the progress of the settlement of the North- 
western Territory. 

Virginia, in 1784, ceded to the United States the vast ter- 
ritory out of which the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Michi- 
gan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota were subse- 
quently formed. In 1787, at the express instance of Virginia, 
Congress adopted the celebrated ordinance for the government ^ 

of this vast domain. Its sixth article ordains that " there ■ '- ' 

shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said A'- 
Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crime whereof f''^*''^"'"^^ '^^^ 
the party shall have been convicted." ■ ^ ^-o-^^^'--*- 

In December, 1805, a petition of the Legislative Council , 
and House of Representatives of the Indiana Territory — then 
comprising all the area now occupied by the States of Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin — was presented to Congress, 



l6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

asking for a suspension of the sixth article, so as to permit the 
introduction of slaves. Similar petitions from inhabitants 
of the Territory, endorsed by a letter from Governor William 
Henry Harrison (afterward President of the United States), 
had been received and referred two years before. The Select 
Committee of seven members — representing Virginia, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Kentucky, and New York, 
with the delegate from the Territory — reported in February, 
1806, in favor of the petitioners, and recommended a suspen- 
sion of the prohibitory article for ten years. They reported 
that the suspension was " almost universally desired in the 
Territory," and recorded it as their opinion that the suspension 
would be a measure alike in the interests of the Territory, the 
slave-holders, and the slaves," and that it was "a question 
entirely different from that between slavery and freedom, as it 
would merely occasion the removal of persons already slaves 
from one part of the country to another." 

It is noteworthy that these dispassionate utterances of 
representatives of every part of the Union, by men contem- 
porary with the origin of the Constitution, when repeated fifty 
years later, came to be denounced and repudiated as partisan 
and sectional. 

At the next session of Congress the subject was again in- 
troduced in a more imposing form — by a letter laid before the 
House from Governor Harrison, indorsing resolutions unani- 
mously adopted by the Legislature of the Indiana Territory 
in favor of the suspension of the prohibitory article — a meas- 
ure, they stated, that would meet " the approbation of at least 
nine-tenths of the good citizens " of the Territory. These res- 
olutions again disclaimed the desire to " extend slavery," as, 
by the suspension asked for, " the number of slaves in the 
United States would not be augmented^' and they reiterated 
that the suspension would tend to be advantageous to the 
negroes themselves as well as to the Territory and to the States 
from which the slaves would be brought. 

A committee again reported in favor of the petition ; a res- 
olution to suspend the prohibitory article was adopted, but it 
failed to pass the Senate, and there the matter seems to have 
been dropped. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1/ 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

It seems proper here to notice the argument that the 
ordinance for the government of the Northwestern Territory 
afforded a precedent in support of the claim of a power in 
Congress to determine the question of the admission of slaves 
into the Territories, and in a justification of the prohibiting 
clause applied, in 1820, to a portion of the Louisiana Terri- 
tory. 

The difference between the Congress of the Confedera- 
tion and that of the Federal Union is so broad that the action 
of the former can, in no just sense, be taken as a precedent for 
the latter. The Congress of the Confederation was, in fact, a 
Convention of Sovereign States, each delegation having one 
vote only, so that all the States were of equal weight in the 
decision of any question. It had legislative, executive, and, in 
some degree, judicial powers — thus combining all departments 
of government in itself. During its recess a committee, known 
as the Committee of the States, exercised the power of the 
Congress, which was, in spirit, an assemblage of the States. 

On the other hand, the Congress of the United States is 
only the legislative department of the General Government, 
with legislative powers strictly defined and expressly limited 
to those delegated by the States. It is further held in check 
by an executive and a judiciary, and consists of two branches, 
each having peculiar and specified functions. 

If, then, it be admitted — which at least is very question- 
able — that the Congress of the Confederation had rightfully 
the power to exclude slave property from the Northwest Ter- 
ritory, that power must have been derived from its character 
as an assemblage of the sovereign States, not from the Articles 
of Confederation, in which no indication of the grant of au- 
2 



1 8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

thority to exercise such a function can be found. The Con- 
gress of the Union is expressly prohibited from the assump- 
tion of any power not distinctly and specially delegated to it. 
What was questionable in the former case, therefore, becomes 
clearly inadmissible in the latter. 

There is another material distinction. The States that 
owned the Northwest Territory were members of the Congress 
which adopted the ordinance, and gave it their full and free 
consent. The balance, therefore, may be regarded as a treaty 
between the ceding and the receiving States. But Missouri, 
and the entire region affected by the Missouri Compromise, 
were part of the territory acquired from France under the 
name of Louisiana; and, as it requires two parties to make or 
amend a treaty, France and the United States should have 
co-operated in any amendment of the treaty by which Louis- 
iana had been acquired, and which guaranteed to the inhab- 
itants of the ceded territory all the rights and advantages 
and immunities of citizens of the United States, and the free 
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion they 
professed. 

For these reasons it seems to me conclusive that the 
action of the Congress of the Confederation, in 1787, could not 
constitute a precedent to justify the action of the Congress of 
the United States, in 1820, and that the prohibiting clause of 
the Missouri Compromise was without constitutional author- 
ity, in violation of the rights of a part of the joint owners of 
the territory, and in disregard of the obligations of the treaty 
with France. 

The origin of the sectional controversy was the question 
of the balance of political power. In its earlier manifestations 
this was undisguised. The purchase of the Louisiana Terri- 
tory from France, in 1803, and the subsequent admission of a 
portion of the territory into the Union as a State, afforded 
one of the earliest occasions for the manifestation of sectional 
jealousy and gave rise to the first threats or warnings (which 
proceeded from New England) of a dissolution of the Union. 
Yet, although negro slavery existed in Louisiana, no pretext 
was made of that as an objection to the acquisition. The cause 
of opposition is frankly stated in a letter of that period from one 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 19 

Massachusetts statesman to another — " that the influence of 
our part of the Union must be diminished by the acquisition 
of more weight at the other extremity." * 

Some years afterward (in 1819-20) occurred the memorable 
contest with regard to the admission into the Union of Mis- 
souri, the second State carved out of the Louisiana Territory. 
The controversy arose out of a proposition to attach to the 
admission of the new State a proviso prohibiting slavery or 
involuntary servitude therein. The vehement discussion that 
ensued was continued into the first session of the subsequent 
Congress, and agitated the whole country during the interval 
between the two. It was the first question that ever seriously 
threatened the stability of the Union, and the first in which 
the sentiment of opposition to slavery was introduced as an 
element of sectional controversy. It was clearly shown in de- 
bate that such considerations were irrelevant ; that the num- 
ber of existing slaves would not be affected by their removal 
from the older States to Missouri; and that the proposed re- 
striction would be contrary to the spirit, if not to the letter, 
of the Constitution. Yet the restriction was adopted in the 
House of Representatives by a vote almost strictly sectional. 
It failed in the Senate through the firm resistance of the South- 
ern, aided by a few patriotic and conservative Northern, mem- 
bers of that body. 

The admission of the new State, without any restriction, 
was finally accomplished by the addition to the bill of a sec- 
tion forever prohibiting slavery, except as to Missouri, in all 
that portion of the Louisiana Territory north of 36° 30' north 
latitude; by implication leaving the portion south of that 
line open to settlement either with or without slaves. 

Then and thus, as at a later period, it will be seen that 
the conflicts between South and North involved no ethical 
question as to slavery ; that they were essentially struggles for 
sectional equality on the one side, and for sectional ascendency 
on the other ; for the maintenance or destruction of that bal- 
ance of power or equipoise between South and North which 



* Cabot to Pickering. See Life and Letters of George Cabot, by C. II. 
Lodge, p. 134. 



20 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

was early recognized as a cardinal principle in our federal sys- 
tem. It does not follow that either party to this contest was 
wholly right or wholly wrong. The determination of the 
question of right or wrong must be left to the candid inquirer 
after examination of the evidence. 

The object of these preliminary investigations has been to 
clear the subject of the obscurity produced by irrelevant issues 
and the glamour of ethical illusions. 



Jl 






/LA>r G-t,. 






CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 21 



CHAPTER V. 

THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 

The period from the first session of the Thirty-first Congress 
(1849-50) to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, although 
marked by important controversies and measures that had a 
noteworthy influence on the future of the country, can be 
referred to here in the briefest outline only. 

The acquisition of the territory of California and New 
Mexico, from Mexico, required Congressional legislation. 
From the deliberations of the committee of which Henry 
Clay was chairman emanated the bills generally known as the 
Compromise Measures of 1850. 

With some others I advocated the division of the newly 
acquired territory by the extension, to the Pacific Ocean, of 
the Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30', not because of any 
inherent merit or fitness in that line, but because, having been 
accepted as a settlement of a threatening controversy thirty 
years before, it had acquired a popular respect which it 
seemed unwise to ignore. This compromise was rejected 
by the majority, composed almost exclusively of Northern 
representatives. The tree whose first-fruits had been peace 
was thus recklessly hewn down and cast into the fire. His- 
tory shows that the South was not responsible for this action, 
whicU proved to be the opening of Pandora's box. 

By this refusal to extend the Missouri line to the Pacific, 
California was admitted into the Union as a free State. The 
compensation offered to the South was a more effective 
law for the rendition of fugitive slaves. The obligation to 
return such fugitives was a duty that had been assumed in 
the adoption of the compact of Union. Yet in defiance of this 
plain constitutional obligation the legislatures of fourteen of 
the States had enacted what were termed " Personal Liberty 



22 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Bills," which prohibited the co-operation of all State officials 
in the rendition of fugitives. Hence the necessity of Federal 
intervention in aid of the execution of State obligations, it was 
argued, in forgetfulness of the obvious fact that whatever 
tended to lead the people of any of the States to feel that they 
could be relieved of their constitutional obligations by trans- 
ferring them to the General Government, or that they might 
thus or otherwise evade or resist them, could not fail to be 
like the tares which the enemy sowed among the wheat. 
The bill was passed, but was made the pretext for the most 
hostile denunciations of the South from the press, platforms, 
and pulpits of the North, in which all guise of friendship was 
thrown away, constitutional obligations and respect for law 
alike were derided, and resistance to the execution of these 
laws of the land was recommended in obedience to the dic- 
tates of " the higher law." 

It was during the progress of these memorable controversies 
that the South lost its most trusted leader, John C. Calhoun. 
He was taken from us, 

" Like a summer-dried fountain, 
When our need was the sorest ; " 

when his intellectual power, his administrative talent, his love 
of peace, and his devotion to the Constitution might have 
averted collision ; or, failing in that, when he might have been 
to the South the Palinurus to steer the bark in safety over 
the perilous sea. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



CHAPTER VI. 

POLITICS IN MISSISSIPPI. 

I WAS re-elected by the Legislature of Mississippi as my 
own successor as United States Senator, and entered on my 
second term on March 4, 185 1. 

After traversing the State I returned from my tour at the 
time appointed for the convention of the Democratic (or 
State-rights) party. During the previous year the Governor 
of Mississippi, General John A. Quitman, had been compelled 
to resign to answer an indictment against him for complicity 
with a recent "filibustering" expedition against Cuba. The 
charge was not sustained, and the Democratic party recognized 
an obligation to renominate him, if he should be a candidate. 
But when the party met in convention it was deemed expe- 
dient, in order to defeat an attempt to fix on the Democ- 
racy the reputation of a purpose of disunion, which some of 
General Quitman's antecedents might have seemed to en- 
courage, to invite me to become a candidate, with the un- 
derstanding, if General Quitman should be appointed my 
successor to the seat in the United States Senate, that I 
should be under the necessity of resigning. My own devotion 
to the Union of our fathers had been so often and so fully 
declared ; my services to the Union, civil and military, were 
so extended and so well known, that it was believed that my 
nomination would remove the danger of defeat which the 
candidacy of a less pronounced advocate of the Union might 
provoke. Then, as afterward, I regarded the separation of 
the States as a great, though not the greatest, evil. 

I left the decision to General Quitman. He declined to 
withdraw. A canvass for candidates to a State Convention, 
simultaneously conducted, resulted, in September, in the 
defeat of the Democratic candidate by about seven thousand 



24 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

five hundred votes. Foreseeing the inevitable defeat of the 
Democracy, General Quitman withdrew, and I was named to 
take his place six weeks before the day of election. Having 
been broken down in health by travelling and speaking during 
the summer, I was not expected to take an active part in the 
pending canvass. Nevertheless, I soon took the field in person, 
after resigning as United States Senator, and remained in 
active service till the close of the election. I was defeated, 
but the adverse majority of seven thousand five hundred was 
reduced to less than one thousand. 

Throughout all this canvass no argument or appeal of 
mine was directed against the perpetuity of the Union. Be- 
lieving, however, that the signs of the times portended danger 
to the South, I counselled that Mississippi should take part 
in the proposed meeting of the people of the Southern States 
to consider what should be done to insure our future safety 
from the usurpation, by the General Government, of undele- 
gated powers, frankly stating my conviction that, unless some 
action were taken, sectional policy would engender greater 
evils in the future, and that, if the adjustment of the contro- 
versy were postponed, the last opportunity for a peaceful 
solution would be lost, and the issue would have to be settled 
by blood. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 2$ 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA TROUBLES. 

Retiring from public life and occupied with the peaceful 
pursuits of a planter, I was recalled by an invitation to accept 
a seat in the cabinet of General Franklin Pierce, who had 
been elected President of the United States in November, 
1852. I was offered and accepted the office of Secretary of 
War. 

As a history of my administration as Secretary of War, 
during this period, may easily be found in the various annual 
reports and in published estimates of works of defence prose- 
cuted or recommended, arsenals of construction and depots 
of arms maintained or suggested, and foundries employed, 
during the Presidency of Mr. Pierce (1853-57), it will suffice 
to refer to these documents, and to add that, having been 
elected by the Legislature of Mississippi, I passed from the 
cabinet of President Pierce, on the last day of his term (March 
4, 1857), to take a seat once more in the Senate of the United 
States. 

The organization of Kansas as a Territory was the first 
great question that gave rise to exciting debate after my re- 
turn to public life. 

In May, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was passed. Its 
principle was declared, in the bill itself, to be to carry into 
practical operation the propositions and principles established 
by the compromise measures of 1850. The Missouri Com- 
proniise was not, by this bill, repealed ; its virtual repeal by 
the legislation of 1850 was recognized as an existing fact, and 
it was declared to be "unoperative and void." From the 
terms of the bill, as well as from the arguments that were 
used in its behalf, it is evident that its purpose was to leave 
the Territories equally open to the people of all the States, 



26 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

with every species of property recognized by any of them ; to 
permit climate and soil to determine the current of immigra- 
tion, and to secure to the people themselves the right to form 
their own institutions, according to their own will, as soon as 
they should acquire the right of self-government ; that is to 
say, as soon as their numbers entitled them to organize them- 
selves into a State prepared to take its place as an equal, 
sovereign member of the Federal Union. The claim, after- 
ward advocated by Mr. Douglas and others, that this dec- 
laration was intended to assert the right of the first settlers 
of a Territory, in its inchoate, rudimental, dependent, and 
transitory condition, to determine the character of its institu- 
tions, constituted the doctrine popularly known as " squatter 
sovereignty." Its assertion led to the dissensions which ulti- 
mately resulted in a rupture of the Democratic party. 

Sectional rivalry now interposed, with gigantic efforts, to 
prevent that free migration which had been promised, and at- 
tempted, by force and fraud, to predetermine the institutions 
to be established by these embryo States, instead of leaving 
to climate and the developed interests of the inhabitants the 
decision of their internal polity when the Territory should 
become a State. Societies were formed in the North to sup- 
ply money and send emigrants into the new Territories ; and 
a famous preacher, addressing a body of these emigrants, 
charged them to carry with them to Kansas " The Bible and 
Sharpe's rifles." The rifles were, of course, to be levelled 
against the bosoms of their Southern brethren who might 
emigrate to the same Territory ; but the use to be made of 
the Bible, in the same fraternal enterprise, was left unexplained 
by the reverend gentleman. 

The war-cry employed to train the Northern mind for the 
deeds contemplated by the agitators was " No extension of 
slavery," although, as is self-evident, the number of slaves 
would not have been increased by their' transportation or 
augmented by further importation. 

The success attending this artifice was remarkable. To 
such an extent was it made available that Northern indigna- 
tion was aroused on the absurd accusation that the South had 
destroyed "that sacred instrument the Compromise of 1820." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 27 

The internecine war that raged in Kansas for several years 
was substituted for the promised peace under the operation of 
the natural laws regulating migration to new countries. For 
the fratricide which dyed the virgin soil of Kansas with the 
blood of those who should have stood shoulder to shoulder 
in subduing the wilderness ; for the frauds which corrupted 
the ballot-box and made the name of election a misnomer, 
let the authors of " squatter sovereignty " and the fomenters 
of sectional hatred answer to the posterity for whose peace 
and happiness the fathers formed the Federal compact. 

In these scenes of strife were trained the incendiaries who 
afterward invaded Virginia under the leadership of John 
Brown; and at this time germinated the sentiments which 
led men of high position to sustain with their influence and 
their money this murderous incursion into the South. Now 
was seen the lightning of that storm, the distant mutterings 
of which had been heard so long, and against which the wise 
and the patriotic had given solemn warning, regarding it as a 
sign which portended a dissolution of the Union. 



28 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 



By the cession of the Northwestern Territory and the 
prohibitory clause of the Ordinance ; by the surrender to the 
North of all the region acquired from France, excepting 
Missouri, north of the parallel of 36° 30' ; by the addition of 
the northern part of Texas under the Compromise of 1850, the 
North, liaving obtained a majority in both Houses of Congress, 
took to itself all the domain secured from Mexico. Thus 
was destroyed the original equilibrium between the two sec- 
tions, although, under the old Confederation, the Southern 
States had an excess of territory, which was greatly increased 
by the Louisiana Purchase. 

Not satisfied with the use of the acquired preponderance, 
its abuse followed. Under the power of Congress to levy 
duties on imports, laws were enacted not merely to pay the 
debts and provide for the common defence and general wel- 
fare of the United States, as authorized by the Constitution, 
but, expressly and chiefly, for the protection of domestic 
manufacturers against foreign competition. These laws im- 
posed an unequal burden of taxation on the Southern people, 
who were not manufacturers but consumers, not only by 
the enhanced price of imports, but by the consequent de- 
preciation of the value of exports, which were chiefly the 
products of the South. The imposition of this grievance 
was unaccompanied by the consolation of knowing that the 
burden thus borne was to supply the public treasury ; for the 
increase of price was designed for, and largely accrued to, the 
Northern manufacturers. 

Nor was this all. A reference to the annual appropria- 
tions shows that the disbursements made were as unequal 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 29 

as the burdens borne, the inequality in both operating with 
the same discrimination against the minority. 

These causes all combined to direct emigration to the 
Northern section. The equality, both in population and in 
the number of States, which existed when the first census 
was taken, disappeared ; the disturbance of that equilibrium 
destroyed the power of self-protection against Federal aggres- 
sion ; while, with the increase of preponderance, appeared 
more and more distinctly a tendency in the Federal Govern- 
ment to pervert the functions delegated to it and to use them 
with sectional discrimination against the minority. 

This policy soon brought to its support the passions that 
spring from man's higher nature, but which, like all passions, 
become hurtful and, it may be, destructive, when misdirected 
or perverted. The year 1835 was marked by the beginning 
of the public agitation for the abolition of that African servi- 
tude in the South which antedated the Union and existed 
in all the States of the Confederation. By a gross miscon- 
ception of the rightful powers of the Federal Government 
and the responsibilities of citizens by the Northern States, 
many of them were brought, little by little, to the conclusion 
that slavery was a sin for which they were answerable, and 
that it was the duty of the Federal Government to abate it. 
At the date referred to the public demonstrations of the 
Abolitionists were violently and generally rebuked at the 
North. Yet, by the activity of the propagandists of aboli- 
tionism and the misuse of the sacred word " liberty," they soon 
reached such numbers as gave them, in many Northern States, 
the balance of power between the two great political parties, 
and they were courted by both of them, and naturally most 
by the Whigs, who had become the Aveaker party of the two. 
Fanaticism, to which there is usually accorded sincerity as an 
extenuation of its mischievous tenets, affords the best excuse 
to be offered for the original Abolitionists ; but that cannot be 
conceded to the political associates who joined them, for with 
them it was hypocritical cant intended to deceive. Hence 
arose the declaration of an " irrepressible conflict " because of 
the domestic institutions of sovereign, self-governing States; 
institutions over which neither the Federal Government nor 



30 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the people outside of the limits of such States had any con- 
trol, and for which they could have no moral or legal responsi- 
bility. 

Those who are to come after us, and who will look without 
prejudice or excitement at the record of events that occurred 
in our day, will not fail to wonder how men, proposing and 
proclaiming such a belief, should have so far imposed on the 
credulity of the world as to be able to arrogate to themselves 
the claim of being the special friends of a Union, contracted 
in order to " insure domestic tranquillity " among the people 
of the States united ; that they were the advocates of peace, 
of law, and of order, who, when taking an oath to support and 
maintain the Constitution, did so with a mental reservation 
to violate one of the provisions of that Constitution — one of 
the conditions of the compact — without which the Union 
could never have been formed. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 3 1 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE JOHN BROWN RAID. 

At the period to which the narrative has now advanced, 
the Free- Soil party, which had now assumed the title of 
" Republican " party, had grown to a magnitude which 
threatened speedily to obtain control of the Government. 
Based on sectional opposition to the growth of the South- 
ern equally with the Northern States of the Union, it had 
absorbed not only the avowed Abolitionists, but other diverse 
and heterogeneous elements of opposition to the Democratic 
party. Their presidential candidates (Fremont and Dayton) 
had received, in 1856, 114 of a total of 296 electoral votes, rep- 
resenting 1,341,264 in a total of 4,054,967. The elections of 
1857 showed a great diminution of the Republican strength, 
and the Thirty-fifth Congress was decidedly Democratic in 
both branches. But, during the next two years, the Kansas 
agitation, and dissensions in the Democratic party, occasioned 
by the new doctrine of squatter sovereignty, had so aug- 
mented the ranks of the Republicans that in the House of 
Representatives neither party had a decided majority. The 
contest over the election of a Speaker was kept up for more 
than eight weeks, and finally ended in the election of a Repub- 
lican by a majority of one vote. The balance of power had 
been held by a few members still adhering to the virtually ex- 
tinct Whig and "American," or " Know-Nothing," parties. The 
Senate continued Democratic, but with a decreased majority. 

It seems proper to note here that the names adopted by 
political parties in the United States have not always been 
strictly significant of their principles. In general terms it may 
be said that the old Federal party inclined to nationalism, or 
consolidation, and that the Whig party, v/hich succeeded it, 
although not identical with it, was favorable, in the main, to a 
strong Central Government. On the other hand, its oppo- 
nent, the Republican, afterward known as the Democratic 
party, was dominated by the idea of the sovereignty of the 



32 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

States and the federal or confederate character of the Union. 
Although other elements have entered into its organization at 
different periods, this has been its vital, cardinal, and abiding 
principle. The Know-Nothing, or American party, which 
sprang into existence on the decadence of the Whig organiza- 
tion, based on opposition to the alleged overgrowth of the 
political influence of naturalized foreigners and of the Roman 
Catholic Church, had but a brief duration, and, after the presi- 
dential election of 1856, declined as rapidly as it had arisen. 

The doctrine of squatter sovereignty, which soon disinte- 
grated the Democratic party, is supposed to have been first sug- 
gested by General Cass, in 1847; but it was not until after the 
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, in 1854, that it was fully 
developed under the plastic and constructive genius of Hon. 
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. Logically carried out, the 
theory of " squatter " or " popular sovereignty " bestowed on 
territorial legislatures, the creatures of Congress, a power not 
vested in Congress itself, or in any legislature in the fully 
organized and sovereign States, as their authority is limited 
both by the State and the Federal Constitutions. 

Strange as it may seem, a theory founded on fallacies so 
transparent and leading to conclusions so paradoxical was ad- 
vocated by many eminent and experienced politicians both in 
the North and in the South, chiefly, perhaps, under the delu- 
sive hope that it would afford a satisfactory settlement of that 
" irrepressible conflict " which had been declared. 

The raid into Virginia under John Brown — already noto- 
rious as a fanatical leader in Kansas — occurred in October, 
1859, a few weeks before the meeting of the Thirty-sixth Con- 
gress. Insignificant in itself and in its immediate results, it 
afforded a startling revelation of the extent to which sectional 
hatred and political fanaticism had blinded the conscience of 
a class of persons in certain States of the Union, forming a 
party steadily growing stronger in numbers as well as in activ- 
ity. Sympathy with its purposes and methods was earnestly 
disclaimed by all parties in Congress ; but, in the country, 
the raid of John Brown intensified the spirit of domination in 
the North, and crystallized the spirit of resistance against fur- 
ther aggression in the South. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 33 



CHAPTER X. 

A RETROSPECT. 

The grievances that led to the War of Independence were 
directly inflicted on the Northern colonies. The Southern 
colonies had no serious cause of complaint ; but, moved by- 
sympathy for their Northern brethren and devotion to the 
principles of civil liberty and community independence, they 
made common cause with their neighbors and did their full 
share in the war that ensued. 

At the close of the war each of the thirteen colonies was 
acknowledged by Great Britain to be a free and independent 
State. The Confederation of these States embraced an area 
so extensive, with climate and products so various, that rival- 
ries and conflicts of interest soon began to be manifested. It 
required all the power of wisdom and patriotism, animated by 
the affection engendered by common sufferings and dangers, 
to keep these rivalries under restraint, and to effect those com- 
promises which it was fondly hoped would insure harmony 
and union. Inspired by this spirit of patriotism, and confi- 
dent of the continuance of good-will between the States, Vir- 
ginia ceded to the confederated States all that vast North- 
western Territory out of which five States and part of a sixth 
have since been organized. These States increased the pre- 
ponderance of the Northern section over that of the section 
which made the gift, and thereby destroyed the equilibrium 
existing at the close of the War of Independence. 

By the operation of the Missouri Compromise, and the 
appropriation of all land obtained from Mexico, it may be 
stated, with approximate accuracy, the North monopolized 
more than three-fourths of all the territory acquired by the 
United States since the Declaration of Independence. 

Nor was this all. By a perversion of the constitutional pro- 
3 



34 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

vision for imposing taxes on imports, the agricultural South 
was heavily burdened for the benefit of the manufacturing 
North ; while the power of the majority was used to appro- 
priate to the Northern States an unequal share of the public 
disbursements. These combined causes — more land, more 
money, more work for special industries — all served to attract 
immigration to the North, and, with increasing population, the 
greed grew by what it fed on. 

This was clearly shown at the first Republican Conven- 
tion, held at Chicago, May i6, i860, to nominate a candidate 
for the Presidency. It was a purely sectional body. Not a 
single delegate represented any constituency south of the 
famous political line of 36° 30'. Contrary to all precedent, 
both candidates were selected from the North. Mr. Lincoln, 
the candidate for the Presidency, had publicly announced 
that the Union "could not permanently remain half slave and 
half free." A fictitious issue was presented. The most fanat- 
ical foes of the Constitution were satisfied that their ideas 
would be the rule and guide of the party. 

Meanwhile the Democratic Convention, which had met at 
Charleston on April 23d, had found it impossible to agree on 
a platform, and hence no nomination was possible. The Con- 
vention was adjourned, to reassemble at Baltimore, where, 
again, the two wings of the party disagreed and held separate 
Conventions — the conservative (or State-rights) wing nominat- 
ing John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, then Vice-President 
of the United States, for President ; and Senator Joseph Lane, 
of Oregon, for Vice-President : and the advocates of the 
doctrine of " popular sovereignty " nominating Stephen A. 
Douglas, of Illinois, for President ; and Herschel V. Johnson, 
of Georgia, for Vice-President. Still another Convention, 
held at Baltimore on May 19th, nominated John Bell, of 
Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachu- 
setts, for Vice-President. This third Convention was com- 
posed of delegates from all the States, representing those who 
still adhered to the Whig party and the " American " organiza- 
tion. It repudiated all sectional and geographical issues, and 
pledged itself to " maintain, protect, and defend those great 
principles of public liberty and national safety against all ene- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 35 

mies." It declared it to be the part of patriotism and of duty 
to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution 
of the country, the Union of the States, and the enforcement 
of the laws. It totally ignored the territorial question. 

Thus, four distinct parties presented rival tickets and plat- 
forms to the people of the United States : 

Briefly, the Constitutional-Union, or Bell-Everett, party 
advocated, in general terms, adherence to the Constitution, the 
Union, and the enforcement of the laws. 

The Democratic-Conservative, or Breckenridge-Lane party 
asserted the right of a people of a Territory, on emerging from 
a territorial condition to that of a State, then to determine 
what should be the nature of their domestic institutions. 

The party of popular sovereignty, or Douglas - Johnson 
party afifirmed the right of the people of a Territory, in their 
territorial condition, to determine their organic institutions, 
independently of the consent of Congress, and denied the 
power or duty of Congress to protect the persons or property 
of minorities in such territories against the action of major- 
ities. 

The Republican, or Lincoln-Hamlin party insisted that 
"slavery can exist only by virtue of municipal law;" that 
there was no law for it in the Territories, and that " Congress 
was bound to prohibit it or exclude it from any and every 
Federal Territory." In other words, it asserted the right 
and duty of Congress to exclude the citizens of half the States 
of the Union from territory belonging in common to all, un- 
less on condition of the abandonment or sacrifice of property 
distinctly and specifically recognized as such by the compact 
of Union. 

The conservative power of the country was thus divided 
into three parts, while the aggressive was held in solid column. 
The result was foreseen by all careful observers, and attempts 
were made to unite the friends of the Constitution by the 
withdrawal of two of the candidates, but Mr. Douglas de- 
clared that the scheme was impracticable, and declined to co- 
operate. 

The result was the election — by a minority — of a President 
whose avowed principles were considered fatal to the harmony 



36 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

of the Union. Of the 303 electoral votes, Mr. Lincoln re- 
ceived 180; but of the popular suffrages — 4,676,853 votes, 
which the electors represented — he received only 1,866,352, or 
a little over one-third. This discrepancy was owing to the 
system of casting the State votes as a unit, without regard to 
the popular majorities. Thus, in New York, the total pop- 
ular vote was 675,156, of which 362,646 were cast for the 
Lincoln electors and 312,510 against them. New York was 
entitled to 35 electoral votes. On the basis of the popular 
vote, 19 of these would have been cast for Mr. Lincoln and 
16 against him. But, under the State unit system, the en- 
tire 35 votes were cast for the Republican candidates, thus 
giving them not only the full strength of the majority, but 
of the great minority opposed to them also. So of other 
Northern States, in which the small majorities on one side 
operated with the weight of entire unanimity; while the 
virtual unanimity in the Southern States counted nothing 
more than a mere majority might have done. 

The announcement of these results caused the smouldering 
fire in a majority of the Southern States to burst into flame ; 
but it was still controlled by that love of the Union which the 
South had illustrated on every battle-field from Boston to 
Mexico. Few, if any, doubted the right of a State to with- 
draw its grant delegated to the Federal Government, or, in 
other words, to secede from the Union ; but this was generally 
regarded as the remedy of the last resort, to be applied only 
when ruin or dishonor was the alternative. It was still hoped 
against hope that some adjustment might be made, some 
means be found to avert the calamities of a practical applica- 
tion of the theory of an " irrepressible conflict." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 37 



CHAPTER XL 

PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 

The indignation with which the result of the Presidential 
election was received in the Southern States proceeded from 
no personal hostility to the President-elect, nor from chagrin 
at the defeat of the Democratic candidates, but from the fact 
that the people of the South recognized in Mr. Lincoln the 
representative of a party professing principles destructive to 
" their peace, their prosperity, and their domestic tranquillity." 

No rash or revolutionary action was taken by the Southern 
States. The measures for defence adopted were considerate, 
and were executed deliberately. The Presidential election 
occurred in November, i860. Most of the State legislatures 
assembled soon afterward in regular session ; although, in 
some cases, special sessions were convoked for the purpose 
of calling State Conventions to be elected expressly for 
taking such action as should be deemed expedient in the 
existing circumstances. 

It had always been held that such Conventions possessed 
all the power of the people assembled in mass ; it was through 
such Conventions that the consent of the several States to 
the formation of the Union had been conveyed ; and by such 
Conventions, therefore, could that assent be revoked. The time 
required for the deliberate and final process also precluded 
the danger of precipitate or premature action, and gave oppor- 
tunity for due reflection by the Federal Government and the 
people of the Northern States. 

The character of the President in power now became an 
important factor in the situation. Mr. Buchanan's freedom 
from sectional asperity, his long life in the public service, his 
conciliatory disposition, his love of peace, and his rever- 
ence for the Constitution, were guarantees that he would not 



38 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

precipitate a conflict with any of the States. But it soon be- 
came evident that in the closing months of his administration 
he had little power to mould the policy of the future. Like 
all intelligent and impartial students of constitutional history, 
the President held that the Federal Government had no right- 
ful power to coerce a State, Like his wise and patriotic pre- 
decessors in ofifice, he believed that " our Union rests upon 
public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of 
its citizens shed in civil war ; that if it could not live in the 
affections of the people it must one day perish ; " and that 
although " Congress may possess many means of preserving 
it by conciliation, the sword was not placed in their hand to 
preserve it by force " (Message of December 3, i860). 

Ten years before the date of this message, Mr. Calhoun 
had uttered similar sentiments in the Senate. But, in the 
intervening years, the progress of sectional discord and the 
tendency of the stronger section to unconstitutional aggres- 
sion had been frightfully rapid. With very rare exceptions, 
in 1850, there were none who claimed the right of the Federal 
Government to coerce a State. In i860, men had grown 
familiar with the threat of driving the South into submission 
to any act that the Government might perform. During the 
canvass of that year demonstrations by great military organ- 
izations in the North pointed unmistakably to the employ- 
ment of means not authorized by the powers delegated to the 
Federal Government by the States. 

It was still recalled that a proposition to authorize the use 
of force against a delinquent State, introduced into the Con- 
vention that framed the Constitution, had been defeated, 
because, as Mr. Madison urged, " the use of force against 
a State would look more like a declaration of war, and would 
probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution 
of all former compacts by which it might be bound." Al- 
though the appeals to passion, preparing the Northern people 
to support a war against the Southern States, in the event of 
secession, were general and vehement, there were not wanting 
protests against this policy even in the ranks of the Repub- 
licans. But the strident roar of prejudice and passion drowned 
the still small voice of constitutional duty. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 39 

That signs of coming danger so visible, evidences of hos- 
tility so unmistakable, disregard of constitutional obligations 
so wanton, taunts and jeers so bitter and insulting should 
serve to increase excitement in the South was a consequence 
flowing as much from reason and patriotism as from senti- 
ment. He must have been ignorant of human nature who 
did not expect such a tree to bear fruits of discord and 
division. 



40 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE CLOSE OF i860. 

Shortly after the election in November, the Senators 
and Representatives of Mississippi were invited by the Gov- 
ernor to meet him for consultation as to the character of the 
message he should send to the special session of the legislature 
he had called to consider the propriety of assembling a con- 
vention. 

While holding, with my political associates, that the right 
of a State to secede was unquestionable, the knowledge I had 
gained, as Chairman of the Military Committee of the United 
States Senate and as Secretary of War, had made me familiar 
with the entire lack of preparation for war in the South ; and 
as, unlike most of my associates, I did not believe that seces- 
sion would be peaceably accomplished, but that war would 
surely ensue between the sections, and that the odds against 
us would be far greater than what were due merely to our 
numerical inferiority, I was slower and more reluctant than 
others, who held a different opinion, to resort to that remedy, 
I soon learned that I was regarded as " too slow ; " and my 
critics were probably correct in their assertions that I was be- 
hind the general opinion of the people of my State as to the 
propriety of prompt secession. While engaged in consultation, 
I received a telegraphic message from two members of Presi- 
dent Buchanan's Cabinet urging me to proceed immediately 
to Washington. Advised by my associates to comply, I hast- 
ened to the capital and called on the President, who offered to 
read to me his forthcoming Message. I made certain sug- 
gestions for its modification, all of which he kindly accepted, 
but some of which he subsequently changed. 

The popular movement in the South was tending rapidly 
toward the secession of the planting States ; yet they were all 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 41 

represented in the House and Senate, except South Carolina, 
when Congress assembled, on December 3, i860. Hopes were 
still cherished that the Northern leaders would appreciate the 
impending peril and devise means of allaying the apprehension 
of the South. But this hope was soon dispelled by the Con- 
gressional debates, which showed an arrogant determination 
to reap to the uttermost the full fell harvest of a sectional 
victory. 

Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, introduced a joint reso- 
lution, known afterward as "the Crittenden Compromise," 
proposing, in the interest of peace and Union, certain amend- 
ments to the Constitution — among them the incorporation, 
into the Constitution, of the Missouri Compromise line. The 
proposed olive branch was contemptuously rejected. Action 
was delayed from time to time, on various pretences, until the 
last day of the session, when it was defeated by seven votes. 

Meanwhile, before the final vote was taken, seven States 
had withdrawn from the Union and established a Confederacy 
of their own. 

Other resolutions, with a similar purpose, met practically 
a similar fate. In the debates on these resolutions I argued 
that our Government is an agency of delegated and strictly 
limited powers ; that its founders did not look to its preser- 
vation by force; that the chain they wove to bind these 
States together was one of love and mutual good offices. 
" They had broken the fetters of despotic power ; they had 
separated themselves from the mother country upon the ques- 
tion of community independence ; and their sons will be de- 
generate indeed if, clinging to the mere name and form of free 
government, they forge and rivet on their posterity the fetters 
which their ancestors broke, ... I cling not merely 
to the name and form, but to the spirit and purpose of the 
Union which our fathers made," 

In these debates one Whig (Mr. Crittenden), and the 
Northern Democrats generally, co-operated with the States- 
rights Democrats of the South ; but the so-called Republican 
Senators of the North rejected every proposition which it 
was hoped might satisfy the Southern people and check the 
progress of the secession movement. 



42 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Similar efforts for an adjustment met a similar fate in the 
House of Representatives. No wonder, then, that, under the 
shadow of the failure of every effort in Congress to find any 
common ground to restore amity between the sections, the 
close of the year should have been darkened by a cloud in the 
firmament, which had lost even the silver lining so long seen, 
or thought to be seen, by the hopeful. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 43 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

South Carolina, by unanimous vote of her Convention, 
on December 20, i860, passed an Ordinance revoking her dele- 
gated powers and withdrawing from the Union. The other 
planting States also made preparations for secession, but 
delayed final action for some time in the hope that Congress 
might avert the necessity by measures of conciliation. See- 
ing the hopelessness of delay, by the failure of all overtures 
during the first month of the session, they hastened to exer- 
cise what was generally admitted to be an undoubted right 
appertaining to their sovereignty as States, and the only peace- 
ful remedy that remained for the evils already felt and the 
dangers feared. 

Many instances and precedents are found in the previous 
history of the country of the assertion of this right, and of a 
purpose to enforce it ; notably in the history of the New Eng- 
land States, and in the utterances of distinguished representa- 
tive men who were contemporaries of the fathers of the Con- 
stitution, or who took part in the Convention that framed it. 
The report of the celebrated Hartford Convention, of 18 14, 
asserts the right of secession ; and its theoretical plan of sep- 
aration corresponds very nearly with that actually adopted by 
the Southern States fifty years afterward. Again, in 1844, 
the annexation of Texas evoked threats of dissolution from the 
Northeastern States, and were formulated into a resolution, 
passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts, and again, in the 
following year, by another resolution, transmitted to Congress, 
declaring the act admitting Texas into the Union to be of 
"no binding force whatever on the people of Massachusetts." 

Seven or eight States were preparing to follow the exam- 
ple of South Carolina, and still others were anxiously con- 



44 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

templating the probable necessity of joining them. Before 
recording the acts that led to further withdrawals from the 
Union and the formation of the Confederate States, it is 
expedient that a brief recapitulation should be made of the 
causes which led to this action, and a fuller exposition given of 
some of the constitutional questions involved in their action. 

The Southern States have been persistently represented 
as the propagandists of slavery, and the Northern States as 
the defenders and champions of universal freedom. It has 
been dogmatically asserted that the war between the States 
was caused by efforts on the one side to extend and perpetuate 
human slavery, and on the other to resist it and establish 
human liberty. Neither allegation is true. 

To whatever extent the question of slavery may have 
served as an occasion, it was far from being the cause of the 
war. 

As an historical fact, negro slavery existed in all the orig- 
inal thirteen States. It was recognized by the Constitution. 
Owing to climatic, industrial, and economical — not moral or 
sentimental — reasons, it had gradually disappeared in the 
Northern States, while it had persisted in the Southern States. 
The slave-trade was never conducted by the people of the 
South. It had been monopolized by Northern merchants 
and carried on in Northern ships. Men differed in their views 
as to the abstract question of the right or wrong of slavery ; 
but, for two generations after the Revolution, there was no 
geographical line of such differences. It was during the con- 
troversy over the Missouri question that the subject first 
took a sectional aspect ; but long after that period Abolition- 
ists were mobbed and assaulted in the North. Lovejoy, for 
example, was killed in Illinois in 1837. 

These facts prove that the sectional hostility which first 
appeared in 1820, in the Missouri controversy, and again 
broke out on the proposition to annex Texas, in 1844, and 
reappeared after the Mexican war, never again to be sup- 
pressed until its fell results had been fully accomplished, was 
not the consequence of any differences on the abstract ques- 
tion of slavery. It was the offspring of sectional rivalry and 
political ambition. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 45 

In 1803 and 181 1, when the Louisiana Purchase, and after- 
ward the admission of the State of Louisiana, created threats 
of disunion from the representatives of New England, it is 
not pretended that the existence of slavery was the ground of 
opposition. The complaint then was not of slavery, but of 
the " acquisition of more weight at the other extremity of the 
Union." It was not slavery that threatened a rupture in 
1832, but an unjust and unequal tariff. 

Of course, the diversity of institutions contributed to the 
conflict of interests. I am stating general principles, not 
defining modifications and exceptions with the precision of a 
mathematical proposition. The truth remains, intact and in- 
controvertible, that the existence of African servitude was in 
nowise the cause of the conflict, but only an incident of it. In 
the later controversies, however, its effect as a lever in oper- 
ating on the passions, prejudices, and sympathies of men was 
so potent that it has darkened the whole horizon of historic 
truth. 

I have not attempted, therefore, and shall not permit 
myself to be drawn into any discussion of the merits or de- 
merits of slavery as an ethical or even as a political ques- 
tion. Such discussion would only serve to divert attention 
from the genuine issue involved. 

As to the institution of negro slavery, it was entirely sub- 
ject to the control of the States. No power was given to the 
General Government to interfere with it ; but an obligation 
was imposed to protect it. Its existence and validity were 
distinctly recognized by the Constitution in the apportionment 
of direct taxation and representation, in the provision for ex- 
tinguishing the slave-trade, and in the article providing for 
the rendition of fugitives from service and labor. 

All Federal and State officials were required to take an 
oath to support the Constitution ; yet the halls of Congress 
were utilized as breastworks from which assaults were made 
upon these guarantees. The legislatures of various Northern 
States enacted laws to hinder the execution of the provisions 
made for the rendition of fugitives from service; State of- 
ficials lent their aid to the work of thwarting them ; and city 
mobs assailed the officers engaged in the duty of enforcing 



46 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

them. The preamble to the Constitution declared the object 
of its founders to be "to insure domestic tranquillity;" but 
now (in i860) the people of a portion of the States had as- 
sumed an attitude of avowed hostility, not only to the provi- 
sions of the Constitution itself, but to the " domestic tranquil- 
lity " of the people of other States. Long before the forma- 
tion of the Constitution one of the charges preferred against 
the Government of Great Britain, as justifying the separation 
of the colonies from that country, was that of having " excited 
domestic insurrection among us." Now the mails are bur- 
dened with incendiary publications ; secret emissaries have 
been sent, and, in one case, an armed invasion of one of the 
States has taken place for the very purpose of exciting " do- 
mestic insurrection." 

It was not the passage of the " Personal Liberty Laws," it 
was not the circulation of incendiary documents, it was not 
the raid of John Brown, it was not the operation of unjust 
and unequal tariff laws, that constituted the intolerable 
grievance ; but it was also the systematic and persistent 
struggle to deprive the Southern States of equality in the 
Union, and generally to discriminate against the interests of 
their people, culminating in their exclusion from the Terri- 
tories, the common property of the States, as v/ell as by the 
infraction of their compact to promote domestic tranquil- 
lity. 

The argument with regard to the Territories need not be 
repeated. Yet one feature of it has not been specially noticed, 
although it occupied a large share of public attention at the 
time and constituted an important element in the case. This 
was the manner in which the action of the Federal judiciary 
thereon was received in the Northern States. 

In 1854 the well-known " Dred Scott Case" came before 
the Supreme Court. It involved the question of the status 
of the African race and the rights of citizens of the Southern 
States to migrate to the Territories, temporarily or perma- 
nently, with their slave property, on a footing of equality with 
the citizens of other States with tJicir property. The long 
discussion of this question had been without any satisfactory 
conclusion ; but all parties had united in declaring that a de- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 4/ 

cision by the highest judicial authority in the land would be 
accepted as final. 

After long and patient consideration of the case the deci- 
sion of the Supreme Court was pronounced by Chief-Justice 
Taney, seven of the nine Judges who composed the Court 
concurring in it. The salient points established by the de- 
cision were, that persons of the African race were not and 
could not be acknowledged as " part of the people," or citizens 
under the Constitution ; that Congress had no right to ex- 
clude citizens of the South from taking their negro servants 
or any other property into any part of the common territory, 
and that they were entitled to its protection therein ; and, 
finally, as a consequence of this principle, that the Missouri 
Compromise of 1820, in so far as it prohibited the existence 
of African servitude north of a designated line, was unconsti- 
tutional and void. 

Instead of accepting the decision of this then august tri- 
bunal as conclusive of a controversy that had long disturbed 
the peace and was threatening the perpetuity of the Union, 
it was flouted, denounced, and utterly disregarded by the 
Northern agitators, and served only to stimulate the intensity 
of their sectional hostility. 

What resource for justice, what assurance of tranquillity, 
what guarantee of safety, now remained for the South ? No 
alternative remained except to seek, out of the Union, that se- 
curity which they had vainly endeavored to obtain within it. 
The hope of our people may be stated in a sentence : it was 
to escape from injury and strife within the Union ; to find 
prosperity and peace out of it. 



48 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

While the limits assigned to this volume do not permit 
a full presentation of the arguments, or an adequate exposition 
of the historical facts that justified the secession of the South- 
ern States, and entitled them to be regarded not as " rebels " 
or " traitors." but as defenders of the original principles on 
which the fathers founded our system of government, or a full 
demonstration of the fact that the essential truths which they 
declared "unalienable" are the foundation-stones on which 
rests the vindication of the Confederate cause, yet, before pro- 
ceeding with the narrative of the events of the war between 
the States, it is essential that the candid student should know 
and bear in mind that the intelligent people of the South 
were practically unanimous in the belief : 

That the States of which the American Union was formed, 
from the moment when they emerged from their colonial or 
provincial condition, became, severally, sovereign, free, and 
independent States — not one State or Nation ; 

That the Union formed under the Articles of Confedera- 
tion was a compact between the States in which these attrib- 
utes of sovereignty, freedom, and independence were expressly 
asserted and guaranteed ; 

That in forming " the more perfect Union " of the Con- 
stitution afterward adopted, the same contracting powers 
formed an amended compact, without any surrender of these 
attributes, either expressed or implied ; but, on the contrary, 
by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, limiting the 
authority of the Federal Government to its express grants, 
with a distinct provision against the presumption of a surren- 
der of anything by implication ; 

That political sovereignty, in contradistinction to the nat- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 49 

ural rights of man, resides neither in the individual citizen, 
nor in unorganized masses, nor in fractional subdivisions of a 
community, but in the people of an organized political body ; 

That no " republican form of government," in the sense in 
which that expression is used in the Constitution, and was 
generally understood by the founders of the Union — whether 
it be the government of a State or of a Confederation of States 
— is possessed of any sovereignty whatever, but merely exer- 
cises certain powers delegated by the sovereign authority of 
the people, and subject to recall and resumption by the same 
authority that conferred them ; 

That the " people " who organized the first Confederation, 
the people who dissolved it, the people who ordained and es- 
tablished the Constitution which succeeded it — the only 
people known or referred to in the phraseology of that period 
— were the people of the respective States, each acting sepa- 
rately and with absolute independence of the others; 

That, in forming and adopting the Constitution, the States, 
or the people of the States, formed a new Government but no 
new People, and that, consequently, no new sovereignty was 
created ; for sovereignty, in an American republic, can belong 
only to a People, never to a Government ; and that the Fed- 
eral Government is entitled to exercise only the powers dele- 
gated to it by the people of the several States. 

That the term People in the preamble to the Constitu- 
tion and in the tenth Amendment, is used distributively ; 
that the only " People of the United States " known to the 
Constitution are the people of each State in the Union ; that 
no such political community or corporate unit as one people 
of the United States then existed, has ever been organized, or 
yet exists ; and that no political action by the people of the 
United States in the aggregate has ever taken place, or ever 
can take place under the Constitution. 

These principles, although they had come to be considered 
as peculiarly Southern, were not sectional in their origin. In 
the beginning and earlier years of our history they were cher- 
ished as faithfully and guarded as jealously in Massachusetts 
and New Hampshire as in Virginia and South Carolina. 

It was in these principles that I was nurtured. 
4 



50 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE RIGHT OF SECESSION. 

The right of a State to secede from the Union — that is, to 
withdraw the powers it had granted by virture of a sovereign- 
ty which it had never delegated — was a riglit never disputed 
by the generation that established the Constitution. To 
resume delegated powers, and to judge of the propriety and 
suf^ciency of the causes for doing so, are alike inseparable 
from the possession of sovereignty. In founding the Federal 
Constitution, in " forming a more perfect Union, " there was 
not the slightest intimation of so radical a revolution as the 
surrender of the sovereignty of the contracting parties would 
have been. It was merely the institution of a new agent, who, 
however enlarged his powers might be, would still remain 
subordinate and responsible to the source from which they 
were derived — that of the sovereign people of each State. 
It was an amended Union, not a Consolidation. 

The present Union owes its very existence to the disso- 
lution, by separate secession, of its members, from the former 
Union, which, in its organic principles, rested upon precisely 
the same foundation. 

These facts and principles can easily be established by 
abundance of contemporary evidence. But the right of the 
people of the several States to resume the power delegated 
by them to the common agency was not left without positive 
and ample official assertion. Even at a period when it had 
never been denied, Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island, in 
ratifying the Constitution, solemnly and formally declared 
that the instrument recognized the right of secession. By 
accepting these ratifications, with this declaration incorporated, 
the other States as distinctly accepted the principles thus 
asserted. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 5 1 

The alternative to secession is coercion. That is to say, if 
no right of secession exists — if it is forbidden by the Con- 
stitution or hostile to it — then it is a wrong for which a 
remedy must lawfully be provided ; which, in such a case, 
could only be the use of force against the State attempting 
to withdraw. 

Early in the session of the Convention it was proposed to 
invest the Congress with this power of coercion. It was 
opposed by Madison, who offered a motion to postpone it ; 
which was adopted nem. con. 

Mr. Hamilton, in the New York Convention, said that " to 
coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever 
devised." 

Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia, in the State 
Convention, eloquently protested against the idea of coercing 
any delinquent State. The idea of even judicial coercion 
was repudiated by Hamilton, Marshall, and others ; and the 
suggestion of military coercion was treated with still more 
abhorrence. ' No principle was more fully and firmly settled, 
on the highest authority, than that, under our system, there 
could be no coercion of a State. 

Among other objections that have been advanced against 
the right of secession is one based on obscure and indefinite 
ideas with regard to allegiance. 

In the light of the principles on which the Constitution 
was founded there can be no doubt that the primary and 
paramount allegiance of the citizen is due to the sovereign 
only ; that this sovereign, under our system, is the people of 
the State to which he belongs — the people who created the 
State Government which he obeys and which protects him in 
the enjoyment of his personal rights ; the people who alone, as 
far as he is concerned, ordained and established the Federal 
Constitution and Federal Government ; the people who have 
reserved to themselves sovereignty, which involves the power 
to revoke all agencies created by them. The obligation to 
support the State or Federal Constitution, and the obedience 
due to either State or Federal Government, are alike derived 
from the allegiance due to the sovereign, and dependent on 
it. If the sovereign abolishes the State Government and 



52 THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 

establishes a new one, the obligation of allegiance requires 
him to transfer his obedience accordingly. If the sovereign 
withdraws from its association with its confederates in the 
Union, the allegiance of the citizen requires him to follow 
the sovereign. Any other course is rebellion or treason ; for 
his relation to the Union arises from the membership of the 
State of which he is a citizen, and ceases whenever his State 
withdraws from it. He cannot owe obedience — much less 
allegiance — to an association from which his sovereign has 
separated and thereby withdrawn him. 

A little consideration of these plain and irrefutable truths 
will show how utterly unworthy and false are the vulgar 
taunts which attribute "treason" to those who, in the late 
secession of the Southern States, were loyal to the only 
sovereign entitled to their allegiance ; and which still more 
absurdly prate of the violation of oaths to support *' the 
Government," an oath which no citizen could have been 
lawfully required to take, and which must have been igno- 
rantly confounded with the prescribed oath to support the 
Constitution. 

To term the action of a sovereign a " rebellion" is a grave 
abuse of language. 

So, also, is the flippant phrase which speaks of it as an 
appeal to the " arbitrament of the sword." In the late contest 
there was no appeal by the seceding States to the arbitrament 
of arms. They neither invited nor provoked war. They stood 
in an attitude of self-defence, and were attacked for merely 
exercising a right alienated neither by the terms of the com- 
pact nor otherwise. The man who defends his house against 
attack cannot with any propriety be said to have submitted 
the question of his right to it to the arbitrament of arms. 

Two moral obligations rested on the seceding States — not 
to break up the partnership without good and sufficient 
cause ; and to make an equitable settlement with former as- 
sociates, and, as far as may be, avoid the infliction of loss or 
damage upon any of them. 

Neither of these obligations was violated or neglected by 
the Southern States in their secession. 



PART II. 

SECESSION AND CONFEDERATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY DAYS OF SECESSION. 

The year 1861 was ushered in with the manifestation 
of a general belief among the people of the planting States 
in the necessity of an early secession as the only possible 
alternative left them. This condition of public opinion was in 
no measure due, as has been sometimes charged, to the " influ- 
ence of a few ambitious politicians." With rare exceptions 
the ofificials were neither agitators nor leaders in the popular 
movement ; the people everywhere were in advance of them ; 
and the influence of the ofidcials, as a rule, was employed to 
allay rather than to stimulate excitement, to restrain rather 
than to accelerate action. These statements apply especially 
to the Southern Senators and Representatives in Congress, to 
whose imaginary " cabals " and " conspiracies " in Washington 
the rapid growth of the secession movement has been attrib- 
uted in certain histories of the war published in the North 
and in Europe. The truth is, that the movements that cul- 
minated in secession were inaugurated before the meeting of 
Congress, and were conducted with a dignity and formality 
that precluded the theory of conspiracy or of passion. These 
acts were the deliberate results of convictions slowly and re- 
luctantly adopted, and due wholly to the belief that by no 
other policy could this relief be obtained. The acts of seces- 
sion were not intended as war measures. The opinion gen- 
erally prevailed that secession would be peacefully accom- 



54 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

plished ; an opinion from which I publicly dissented, with 
the result, as already stated, that I was regarded as " too 
slow," and as being behind the public sentiment of my own 
State. 

Another fallacy should be noted here. It has been often 
asserted that the troops of the United States army were so 
disposed, by a collusion between the Southern leaders and 
Mr. Floyd, the Secretary of War, that the seizure of forts, 
arsenals, and custom-houses in the South was rendered pos- 
sible and easy. No such conspiracy existed. The military 
forts were in their usual condition. There were no fewer 
troops at the time of their seizure by the States than there had 
been for many years, nor than there is, generally, even to this 
day (1889). 

Still another imputation on the honor of Southern Sen- 
ators should be repelled here before entering on the narrative 
of the ensuing events. It was alleged — and the Comte de 
Paris has specially singled out my name in connection with 
this disgraceful charge — that we held our seats as a vantage- 
ground for plotting for the dismemberment of the Union. It 
is a charge which no accuser ever made in my presence, 
although I have in public debate more than once challenged 
its assertion and denounced its falsehood. It will suffice to 
say that I always held, and often avowed, the principle that a 
Senator in Congress occupied the position of an ambassador 
from the State he represented to the Federal Government, as 
well as being, also, in some sense a member of the Govern- 
ment ; and that, in either capacity, it would be dishonorable to 
use his powers and privileges for the dismemberment of the 
Government to which he was accredited. Acting on this 
principle, as long as I held a seat in the Senate my best efforts 
were directed to the maintenance of the Constitution and the 
Union resulting from it, and to make the Government an 
effective agent of the States for its prescribed purposes. As 
soon as the paramount allegiance due to Mississippi forbade 
a continuance of these efforts I withdrew from the United 
States Senate. To say that, during this period, I did nothing 
secretly in conflict with what was done or proposed openly, 
would be merely to assert my own integrity, an assertion which 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 55 

would be worthless to those who doubt it, and superfluous to 
those who believe in it. What is here said on the subject for 
myself, I believe to be also true of my associates in Congress. 
Further explanation of my own position on these questions 
more properly belongs to biography than to history, and may 
therefore be passed over here. 

Without at this time entering into a discussion of the legal 
questions involved, it is proper to add that the sites of forts, 
arsenals, navy-yards, and other public property of the Federal 
Government were ceded by the States within whose bounda- 
ries they were situated, subject to the condition that they 
should be used solely and exclusively for the purposes for 
which they were granted. By accepting such grants, under 
such conditions, sometimes expressed, always implied, the 
Federal Government assented to their propriety ; and it 
follows that a State withdrawing from the Union would con- 
sequently resume the control over all public defences and 
other public property within its limits ; providing, however, 
for adequate compensation to the other members of the part- 
nership, or their common agent, for the value of the work or 
loss incurred. Such equitable settlement the seceding States 
were desirous to make and prompt to propose to the Fed- 
eral authorities. 



56 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER II. 

FORT SUMTER. 

On the secession of South Carolina, the conditions of the 
defences of Charleston Harbor became a subject of general 
anxiety. Of the three forts of the harbor, one only — Fort 
Moultrie — was occupied, and that was held by a garrison of 
less than a hundred effective men, under the command of 
Major Robert Anderson. 

About two weeks before the passage of the Ordinance of 
Secession the congressional representatives of South Carolina 
called on President Buchanan, to assure him, in anticipation 
of that event, that the State authorities had no immediate in- 
tention of attacking or molesting the Federal forts, provided 
that no reinforcements should be sent and that the military 
situation should remain unchanged. While he declined to 
make any formal pledge, the delegation understood the Presi- 
dent as approving this suggestion. Subsequent developments 
have shown, however, that, both before and after the secession 
of South Carolina, preparations were secretly made for rein- 
forcing Major Anderson. 

Immediately after the secession of the State the Conven- 
tion of South Carolina deputed three commissioners to " treat 
with the Government of the United States for the delivery of 
the forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, with 
their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina, and 
also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a di- 
vision of all other property held by the Government of the 
United States, as agent of the confederated States of which 
South Carolina was recently a member, and generally to nego- 
tiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be 
made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties, and 
for the continuance of peace and amity between this common- 
wealth and the Government at Washington." 




) MeNRY A.WlSE. '1 

^ — —^ Uf 

Officers of the Confederate Army and Navy. 



_ 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 5/ 

Before these commissioners could communicate with the 
President an event occurred which changed the whole aspect of 
affairs. On December 26th, the whole country was electrified 
by the news that, during the previous night, Major Anderson 
had " dismantled Fort Moultrie, spiked his guns, burned his 
gun-carriages, and removed his command to Fort Sumter," 
which occupied a more commanding position in the harbor. 

This action was regarded by the Government and people 
of South Carolina as a violation of the implied pledge of a 
maintenance of the status quo. The remaining forts and other 
public property were at once taken possession of by the State, 
and the condition of public opinion became greatly exacer- 
bated. An interview between the President and the commis- 
sioners was followed by a sharp correspondence, and negotia- 
tions were soon abruptly broken off. 

In the meantime Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, had re- 
signed because, it was said, the President had refused to send 
reinforcements to Charleston ; and on the occupation of Fort 
Sumter, which he regarded as a violation of the pledge given 
or implied by the Government, Mr. Floyd resigned, because 
the President refused to withdraw the garrison from the har- 
bor. 

Personally, I urged the President to withdraw this garrison, 
as it only served as a menace — for it was utterly incapable of 
holding the fort if attacked ; while nothing would have oper- 
ated more powerfully to quiet the apprehensions and allay 
the resentment of the people of South Carolina than the 
withdrawal of the impotent menace. Mr. Buchanan's abiding 
hope was to avert a collision, or at least to postpone it beyond 
the close of his official term. The management of the whole 
affair was what Talleyrand described as something worse than 
a crime — a blunder. Whatever treatment the case demanded 
should have been prompt. To wait was fatuity. 

The ill-advised attempt to reinforce and provision Fort 
Sumter by the steamer Star of the West resulted in the 
repulse of that vessel at the mouth of the harbor. On Janu- 
ary 9th, on her refusal to heave to, she was fired upon, and she 
put back to sea with her supplies and concealed recruits. 
Again I called on the President and urged such prompt meas- 



58 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

ures as were now evidently necessary to avert impending ca- 
lamity ; but the result was even more unsatisfactory than 
similar previous efforts. 

Another commissioner was sent by South Carolina to nego- 
tiate with the Federal Government for the peaceful transfer of 
the fort ; but he was put off with evasive and unsatisfactory 
answers, and finally returned without having effected any- 
thing. 

During the remainder of Mr. Buchanan's administration 
things went rapidly from bad to worse, and the veteran states- 
man, at the expiration of his term of ofifice, retired to private 
life, having effected nothing to allay the storm that had been 
steadily gathering during his administration. 

Then timid vacillation was succeeded by unscrupulous 
cunning, and for futile efforts, without hostile collision, to 
impose a claim of authority upon people who repudiated it 
were substituted measures which could be sustained only by 
force and bloodshed. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 59 



CHAPTER III. 

PROGRESS OF SECESSION. 

Meanwhile the popular movement in the planting 
States resulted in the secession of Missi'ssippi on the 9th of 
January, 1861 ; of Florida on the loth ; of Alabama on the 
nth ; of Georgia on the i8th ; and of Louisiana on the 26th. 
The Conventions of these States united with South Carolina 
in naming the 4th of February as the date, and Montgomery, 
Ala., as the place, for the assembly of a Congress of the se- 
ceded States. Each State Convention appointed delegates to it. 

As soon as we received ofificial information of the secession 
of our States, on January 21st, the Senators of Florida and 
Alabama, and myself, announced the withdrawal of our re- 
spective States and took formal leave of the Senate. 

The course which events were likely to take was now 
shrouded in the greatest uncertainty. The common opinion 
in the Southern States was that the separation would be final 
but peaceful. For my own part, while believing that seces- 
sion was a right stnd properly ^a peaceful remedy, I had never 
believed that it would be permitted to be peacefully exer- 
cised ; I had predicted a long and desperate struggle, and 
advised preparations to be made therefor. Very few in the 
South agreed with me at that time, and my opinions were 
as unwelcome as they were unexpected. Let us do credit to 
that generous credulity which could not understand how, 
in violation of the compact of Union, a war could be waged 
against the seceding States, or why they should be invaded 
because their people had deemed it necessary to withdraw 
from an association which had failed to fulfil the end for 
which they had entered into it, and which, having been 
broken by the other parties, to the injury Qf the seceding 
States, had ceased to be binding on them. 

It is satisfactory to know that the calamities which have 
Defallen the Southern States were the result of their credulous 



6o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

reliance on the power of the Constitution, that, if it had failed 
to protect their rights, it would at least suffice to prevent an 
attempt at coercion, if, in the last resort, they peacefully 
withdrew from the Union. 

The Congress of Delegates from the seceding States met at 
Montgomery on the day appointed, and soon prepared a Pro- 
visional Constitution for the new Confederacy, to be formed 
of the States that had withdrawn from the Union, under the 
style of the Confederate States of America. The Constitu- 
tion was adopted on the 8th of Februar}', to continue in force 
for one year, unless superseded at an earlier date by a perma- 
nent organization. 

On the 9th of February the Congress proceeded to vote 
for officers of the Provisional Government. It resulted in my 
election to the Presidency, with Hon. Alexander Stephens, of 
Georgia, as Vice-President. 

I was engaged at the time in the peaceful pursuits of a 
planter at my home at Briarfield, Miss., when I was notified 
of my election, accompanied by an urgent request to proceed 
immediately to Montgomery. 

As my election had been spoken of as a probable event, 
and as I did not desire that position or any civil office, but 
preferred to remain in the post to which I had been elected, and 
still held, at the head of the army of Mississippi, I had taken 
what seemed to me ample precautions to prevent my nomi- 
nation to the Presidency. I accepted the position because I 
could not decline it, but with the expectation and intention 
of soon returning to the field. 

On my way to Montgomery brief addresses were made by 
me at various places, which were grossly misrepresented at 
the North as invoking war and threatening devastation. Not 
deemed worthy of contradiction at the time, when problems 
of vital public interest were constantly presented, these false 
and malicious reports have since been adopted by partisan 
writers as authentic history. It is sufficient here to say that 
no utterance of mine, private or public, differed in tone and 
spirit from my farewell address to the Senate, or my inaugural 
address at Montgomery ; the one a short time before, the 
other a short time after, the date of these fictitious addresses. 




^ — cf" 

Cabinet of the Confederacy, 



II 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 6 1 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CONFEDERATE CABINET AND CONGRESS. 

Immediately after being inaugurated, I proceeded to the 
formation of a Cabinet, and selected, as Secretary of State, 
Mr. Toombs, of Georgia ; as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
Memminger, of South Carolina; as Secretary of War, Mr. 
Walker, of Alabama ; as Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, 
of Florida ; as Attorney-General, Mr. Benjamin, of Louis- 
iana ; as Postmaster-General, Mr. Reagan, of Texas. In mak- 
ing these selections I was governed by considerations of the 
public welfare only. Not even a single member of the Cab- 
inet bore to me the relation of close personal friendship, and, 
indeed, with two of them I had had no previous acquaintance. 

The first act of the Confederate Congress was to continue 
in force all the laws of the United States not inconsistent 
with the Constitution of the Confederate States, and to con- 
tinue in power all officials connected with the collection of 
, customs, and the assistant treasurers entrusted with the keep- 
ing of the moneys arising therefrom. 

On the 25th of February the Congress passed an act, which 
the President approved, declaring the peaceful navigation 
of the Mississippi River free to the citizens of any of the 
States upon its borders, or upon the borders of its navigable 
tributaries, without any duty or hindrance, except light money, 
portage, and other like charges. Another act repealed the 
laws forbidding the employment in the coasting trade of ves- 
sels not enrolled or licensed, and of all laws imposing discrim- 
nating rates on foreign vessels or goods imported in them. 
These and similar acts indicated the wish of the people of the 
Confederacy to preserve the peace and encourage the freest 
commerce with all nations, and not least with their late as- 
sociates the United States. Indeed, all the laws passed by 



62 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the Provisional Congress show how consistent were the pur- 
poses and actions of its members with their original avowal of 
a desire peacefully to separate from those with whom they 
could not live in tranquillity. 

In accordance with a resolution of the Congress, which was 
in entire accord with my own views and inclinations, I was 
next required to appoint commissioners to negotiate friendly 
relations with the United States, and an equitable and peace- 
able settlement of all questions pending between the two Gov- 
ernments. Messrs. A. R. Roman, of Louisiana; Martin J. 
Crawford, of Georgia ; and John Forsythe, of Alabama — three 
discreet, well-informed, and distinguished citizens— were ap- 
pointed as commissioners to proceed to Washington to nego- 
tiate for an amicable settlement of the questions consequent 
on separation. But as I did not hold the common opinion 
that we should be allowed to depart in peace, I regarded it as 
an imperative duty to make all possible preparations for the 
contingency of war. 

While these events were occurring, the last noteworthy 
effort, within the Union, was made to arrest the progress of 
the usurpation that was driving the Southern States into 
secession. This effort was made by the General Assembly 
of Virginia, which invited all States which desired to unite 
with her in arresting disunion by an equitable adjustment of 
the existing controversies, to appoint commissioners to meet 
in Washington on the 4th of February, " to consider, and if 
practicable to agree upon, some suitable arrangement." 

Ex-President Tyler, Messrs, Rives, Brockenburgh, Sum- 
mers, and Seddon — five of the most distinguished citizens of 
the State — were appointed commissioners for Virginia, with 
instructions, if they should agree on any plan of settlement 
with the commissioners of other States regarding amend- 
ments to the Federal Constitution, to communicate them to 
Congress with a view to their submission to the several States 
for ratification. 

The Border States promptly acceded to the proposal of 
Virginia ; other States followed ; so that, when the confer- 
ence, or " Peace Congress," as it was called, assembled, on 
the 4th of February, it was found that twenty-one States were 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 6^ 

represented. Of this number fourteen were Northern non- 
slaveholding, and seven Southern and slave-holding, States. 
Three of the Northwestern and the two Pacific States, the 
six States that had seceded, and Texas and Arkansas — whose 
secession was inevitable — held aloof from the conference. 

It is needless to recall the deliberations of this conference. 
A plan of settlement was finally adopted by a majority of the 
States represented, and the amendments deemed essential to 
put an end to further contention were agreed on and pre- 
sented to the Senate. The plan thus formulated resembled 
in its chief features the plan of Mr. Crittenden, then still 
pending. The distinguished Senator promptly accepted it as 
a substitute for his own proposition, and eloquently urged its 
adoption. But the arrogance of a sectional majority, inflated by 
recent triumph, was too powerful to be allayed by the appeals 
of patriotism or the counsels of wisdom. The plan of the 
Peace Congress was treated with the same contemptuous 
indifference shown to every other movement for conciliation. 

These efforts occurred on the eve of the inauguration of 
Mr. Lincoln, and the accession to power of a party founded 
on a basis of sectional aggression, and now thoroughly com- 
mitted to its prosecution and perpetuation. With the failure 
of these efforts expired the last hope of reconciliation and 
fraternal union. 



64 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER V. 

SOME NORTHERN PROTESTS. 

It should be noted that the Southern States did not 
stand alone at this period in the assertion of the right of 
secession and the wrong of coercion. Leading journals of the 
North and many prominent politicians — such conspicuous 
supporters of the predominant party, for example, as the 
New York Tribune and New York Herald, and such politi- 
cal leaders as Horatio Seymour, ex-Governor of New York, 
James S. Thayer, ex-Chancellor Walworth, and Horace 
Greeley — that is to say, many influential representatives of the 
Republican party and a still larger portion of the Democratic 
party of the North — distinctly asserted the right of secession 
and repudiated the claim of right to restrain or coerce a State 
in the exercise of its free choice, and in language as distinct 
and emphatic as that uttered in other times by Hamil- 
ton, or Madison, or Marshall, or John Ouincy Adams. One 
Northern journal, of great influence, even went so far as to 
declare that " if troops should be raised in the North to 
march against the people of the South, a fire in the rear would 
be opened on such troops, which would either stop their march 
altogether or wonderfully accelerate it.'' 

Even Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural address on the 4th of 
March, 1861, while arguing against the right to secede, and 
asserting his intention to repossess the places and property 
belonging to the Government, declared that "beyond what 
may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, 
no using of force against or among the people anywhere." 

Such utterances kept alive in the hearts of the Southern 
people the hope that separation would be as peaceable in fact 
as it was on their part in purpose ; that the conservative and 
patriotic feeling still existing in the North would control the 
elements of sectional hatred and bloodthirsty fanaticism, and 
that there would be really no war. 




) C.C.Memamnger [ 

^] — -^ {^ 

Cabinet of the Confederacy. 



. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 6$ 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CONFEDERATE CONSTITUTION. 

One week after the inauguration of the Federal President 
at Washington, the Confederate Congress at Montgomery 
completed the permanent Constitution, which was forthwith 
submitted to the people of the respective States and duly rati- 
fied by them. 

The Confederate Constitution was modelled on the Con- 
stitution of the United States, with only such changes as expe- 
rience had suggested for better practical working or greater 
perspicuity. The chief changes are easily noted. In accord- 
ance with the original draft of the Constitution of 1787, the 
cfilicial term of the President was fixed at six instead of four 
years, and it was provided that he should not be eligible for 
re-election. The President was empowered to remove his 
cabinet officers or diplomatic agents ; but, in all other cases, 
removals from ofifice could be made only for cause, and the 
cause was to be reported to the Senate. 

Congress was authorized to provide for the admission of 
cabinet officers to a seat in either house, with the privilege 
of participating in debates pertaining to their departments. 
Unfortunately, this wise and judicious provision remained 
inoperative, owing to the failure of Congress to provide the 
appropriate legislation. 

Protective tariff-duties, bounties, and extra compensation 
for services of Government officials were altogether prohibited. 

The President was vested with the power to veto any 
appropriation in a bill without thereby disapproving any other 
appropriation in the same bill. 

Any two or more States were authorized to enter into com- 
pact for the improvement of navigable rivers flowing through 
or between them. 

A vote of two-thirds of each house — the Senate voting by 
States — was required for the admission of a new State. 
5 



66 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The impeachment of Confederate officers was entrusted, as 
under the old Constitution, to the discretion of the House of 
Representatives; with the additional provision that, in the 
case of any judicial or other officer, exercising his functions 
within the limits of a particular State, impeachment might be 
made by the Legislature of such State ; the trial, in all cases, 
to be by the Senate of the Confederate States. 

With regard to amendments to the Constitution, it was 
made obligatory on Congress, on the demand of any three 
States concurring in the proposed amendment or amendments, 
to summon a convention of all the States to consider and act 
upon them, voting by States, but restricted in its action to 
the particular proposition thus submitted. If approved by 
such convention, the amendments were to be subject to final 
ratification by two-thirds of the States. 

With regard to slavery and the slave-trade the provisions 
of the Constitution furnished an effective answer to the asser- 
tion, so often made, that the Confederacy was founded on 
slavery and intended to perpetuate and extend it. Property 
in slaves, already existing, was recognized and guaranteed, just 
as it was by the Constitution of the United States ; and the 
rights of such property in the common Territories were pro- 
tected against any such hostile discrimination as had been 
attempted in the Union. But the extension of slavery, in 
the only practical sense of that phrase, was more distinctly 
and effectively precluded by the Confederate than by the 
Federal Constitution. The further importation of negroes 
from any country, other than the slave-holding States and 
Territories of the United States, was peremptorily prohibited, 
and Congress was further endowed with the power to pro- 
hibit the introduction of slaves from any State or Territory 
not belonging to the Confederacy. 

Having had no direct part in the preparation of the Con- 
federate Constitution, no consideration of delicacy restrains 
me in declaring my belief that it was a model of wise, temper- 
ate, and liberal statesmanship, or from adopting the language 
of the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens in saying that 

" The whole document negatives the idea, which so many 
have been active in endeavoring to put in the enduring form 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 6/ 

of history, that the Convention at Montgomery was nothing 
but a set of conspirators, whose object was the overthrow of 
the principles of the Constitution of the United States and 
the creation of a great ' slave oligarchy,' instead of the free 
institutions thereby secured and guaranteed. The work of the 
Montgomery Convention, with that of the Convention for a 
Provisional Government, will ever remain not only as a monu- 
ment of the wisdom, forecast, and statesmanship of the men 
who constituted it, but an everlasting refutation of the charges 
which have been brought against them. These Constitutions, 
provisional and permanent, together, show clearly that the only 
leading object of their framers was to sustain, uphold, and per- 
petuate the fundamental principles of the Constitution of the 
United States." 



68 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

Having received from Mr. Buchanan, through a distin- 
guished Senator, an intimation that he would be pleased to 
receive a commission or commissioners from the Confederate 
States, and would be willing to transmit to the Senate any 
communication received from them, I hastened the departure 
of Mr. Martin J. Crawford, one of the three gentlemen pre- 
viously appointed, and authorized him to act as Special Com- 
missioner of the Confederate States to the Government of the 
United States. Mr. Crawford reached Washington two or 
three days before the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's term of 
ofBce. He found that the President had become so panic- 
stricken between the time that he gave his promise to receive 
a Confederate Commissioner and the actual arrival of the 
Commissioner that he declined either to receive him or to 
send any message to the Senate relating to his mission. He 
said that he had only three days of official life left, and could 
incur no further dangers and reproaches than he had already 
borne from the press and public speakers of the North. 

On the arrival of Mr. Forsythe, the two Commissioners 
renewed their intercourse with the Federal authorities, and 
requested the appointment of a day for presentation to the 
President. Instead of being received in the friendly spirit 
and desire for peace which had inspired their appointment, 
they were kept waiting, and were deceived by false assur- 
ances and by pledges which were broken without scruple or 
explanation. 

The purpose of this evasive and deceptive policy was to 
get time to reinforce the forts in the harbor of Charleston; 
the pledge to evacuate Sumter, for example, having been sol- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 69 

emnly renewed even at the time when a special messenger 
from the State Department was on his way to South Caro- 
lina to arrange with the Federal officers in command a plan 
for revictualling and reinforcing the forts. 

A naval expedition for the relief of Fort Sumter was sent 
out from New York, and it was expected to reach Charleston 
Harbor on the 9th of April. Yet the Confederate Commis- 
sioners were detained at Washington under the assurance that 
due notice would be given of any military movement. The 
notice was given not to the Commissioners but to the Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina, and only on the eve of the day on 
which the fleet was expected to arrive. The history of the 
negotiations with the General Government is the narration 
of a protracted course of fraud and prevarication practised by 
Mr, Lincoln's administration. Every pledge made was broken, 
and every assurance of good faith was followed by an act of 
perfidy. The remonstrances, the patient and reiterated at- 
tempts of the South Carolina and Confederate Commissioners 
to open negotiations had been met by evasion and prevarica- 
tion. It was evident that no confidence could be placed in 
any pledge or promise of the Federal Government. Yet no 
resistance other than that of pacific protest and appeals for an 
equitable settlement was made until after the public avowal 
of a purpose of coercion, and when it was known that a hostile 
fleet was on the way to support and enforce it. 

The forbearance of the Confederate Government in the 
circumstances is held up as unexampled in history. It was 
carried to the verge of disregard of the safety of the people 
who had entrusted to that government the duty of their de- 
fence. 

To have waited further strengthening of the enemy by 
land and vessel forces, with hostile purpose, now declared, for 
the sake of having them " fire the first gun," would have been 
as unwise as it would be to hesitate to strike down an assail- 
ant who levels a deadly weapon at one's heart until he has 
actually fired. He who makes the assault is not necessarily 
he who strikes the first blow or fires the first gun. 

After the assault was made by the hostile descent of the 
fleet, the reduction of Fort Sumter was a measure of defence 



70 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

rendered absolutely and immediately necessary. Even Mr. 
Horace Greeley, with all his extreme partisan feeling, is 
obliged to admit that " whether the bombardment and reduc- 
tion of Fort Sumter shall or shall not be justified by poster- 
ity, it is clear that the Confederacy had no alternative but its 
own dissolution." * 



* American Conflict, vol. i., chap, xxix., p. 449. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 7 1 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER. 

As soon as the Confederate Government at Montgomery- 
had received official information of the intention of the Federal 
Government at Washington, in violation of its pledges, to pro- 
vision Fort Sumter, by force if necessary, it directed General 
Beauregard to demand its evacuation, and to proceed to reduce 
it if Major Anderson, its commander, should refuse to surrender. 

After a fruitless effort to avoid the effusion of blood by 
arranging for a definitive and peaceful evacuation, General 
Beauregard opened the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter 
at daylight on the morning of April 13, 1861. The bombard- 
ment continued for nearly thirty-four hours, when the fort, 
which had been partly destroyed by shot, was set on fire ; and 
Major Anderson, after agallant defence, was forced to surrender. 

It is a remarkable fact that, notwithstanding the extent 
and magnitude of the engagement, the number and calibre of 
the guns, and the enormous damage done to inanimate mate- 
rial on both sides, especially to Fort Sumter, not a single 
man was killed or wounded in either of the contending forces. 

The Federal garrison was generously permitted to retire 
with the honors of war. The event, however, was seized 
upon to inflame the minds of the Northern people. The 
disguise which had been worn in the communications with the 
Confederate Commissioners was now torn off, and it was 
craftily attempted to show that the South, which had been 
pleading for peace and still stood on the defensive, had, by this 
bombardment, inaugurated a war against the United States. 

But it should be remembered that the threats implied in 
the declaration that the Union could not exist part slave and 
part free, and the denial of the right of a State peacefully to 
withdraw, and the sending of an army and navy to attack, 
were virtually declarations of war. 



PART III. 

THE IVAR. 



CHAPTER I. 

SOUTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND, AND VIRGINIA. 

The fall of Sumter was quickly followed by a succession 
of great events, all tending to a separation of the States. 
Two days after the evacuation Mr. Lincoln made a call for 
75,000 men, on the extraordinary pretext of overcoming 
" combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
course of judicial proceedings," and, by proclamation, com- 
manded " the persons composing the combinations to dis- 
perse." That this proclamation and this action were unconsti- 
tutional and illegal it needs but the slightest acquaintance 
with the history of the Union to perceive. The " persons " 
thus characterized as " composing combinations " were States 
of the Union, the sovereign creators of the Federal Govern- 
ment. Yet they were thus commanded by their agent to 
" disperse." Again, the levying of so large a force could only 
mean war ; and the power to declare war is vested by the 
Constitution in Congress only. But even if the acts of the 
seceding States had constituted a "riotous combination," 
it could only have been against the State ; and the Pres- 
ident had no lawful power to aid in suppressing it, except 
upon application from the State for that purpose ; it 
could neither precede that application nor be exerted against 
the will of the State. Under any view of constitutional law 
the calling for an army to invade the Southern States, which 
were asserted to be still in the Union, was a palpable viola- 



THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. "Jl 

tion of the Constitution, and the usurpation of undelegated 
powers which had been sacredly " reserved to the State or to 
the people." 

The first response in the South to this unconstitutional 
action of the Federal Executive, which occurred two days 
after the publication of the Proclamation, was the secession of 
Virginia from the Union. Two days later the unorganized 
citizens of Baltimore resisted the passage through their State 
of troops then on their way to make war on the Southern 
States. 

The Virginia Ordinance of Secession was subject to ratifi- 
cation by the people at an election to be held on the fourth 
Tuesday of May. In the meantime her authorities, antici- 
pating the inevitable result of that election, formed an alli- 
ance with the Confederate States, a wise action, which was 
promptly approved by the Convention. 

By this time South Carolina had sent a brigade to Rich- 
mond to sustain the popular movement ; and, throughout the 
entire South there was a prevalent desire to rush to Vir- 
ginia, where it was seen that the first great battles of the war 
were to be fought. The universal feeling was that of a com- 
mon cause and common destiny ; the universal desire was to 
sustain that broad principle of constitutional liberty, the right 
of self-government. 

The hope which was entertained at an early date of a 
peaceful solution of the issues pending between the Confeder- 
ate States and the United States rapidly diminished ; so that, 
on the 6th of March, the Congress at Montgomery passed an 
act establishing and authorizing the President to employ the 
militia, and to ask for and accept the services of any number 
of volunteers not exceeding 100,000. On the same day an act 
was passed establishing and organizing the Army of the Con- 
federate States of America, this being in contradistinction to 
the provisional army of troops tendered by the States, as in 
the first act, and volunteers received, as in the second act, to 
constitute a provisional army. 



74 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER II. 

CONFEDERATE PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE. 

Three days after my inauguration, at Montgomery, Cap- 
tain (afterward Admiral) Semmes was sent to the North to 
make purchases of arms, ammunition, and machinery ; and, 
soon afterward, another officer was sent to Europe to buy in 
the market as far as possible, and, furthermore, to make con- 
tracts for arms and ammunition to be manufactured. The 
subsequent intervention of the civil authorities prevented the 
delivery of many valuable articles contracted for by Captain 
Semmes in the Northern States. 

Major Huse, who was sent to Europe, found few serviceable 
arms in the market ; but, being in advance of the agents of the 
Federal Government, succeeded in making contracts for the 
manufacture of arms in large quantities. Captain Semmes 
had also instructions to seek for vessels that would serve for 
naval purposes, but could find none that were, or could be 
made, available for that purpose. 

By the action of the Southern naval officers, in taking 
their vessels into Northern ports before they resigned from the 
Federal navy, and bringing only their swords to the Confed- 
eracy (under an idea more creditable to their sentiment than 
to their knowledge of the nature of our Constitutional Union), 
we were doubly bereft, by losing our share of the navy we 
had contributed to build, and by having it all employed to 
assail us. As the construction of vessels had been monopo- 
lized by the North, we found ourselves, on the opening of 
hostilities, without a navy, and without the machinery and 
accessories for building one. 

The general belief in the North that the South had long 
prepared for war, although mistaken, and the general belief 
in the South that there would be no war, and the fact that 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 75 

few realized how totally deficient we were in all which was 
necessary to the active operations of an army, resulted in un- 
due caution at the North and overweening confidence at the 
South, This same confidence prevented our people from 
turning their attention at once to the production of food- 
supplies. The condition of the railroads in the South — in- 
sufficient in number and deficient in rolling stock — contrib- 
uted, also, to prevent the rapid transportation of supplies 
in cases of pressing emergency. Even the skilled railroad 
operatives were generally Northern men, and their desertion 
followed fast after every disaster to the Confederate arms. 

Thus hampered — without a supply of powder, without 
nitre, or saltpetre, without powder-mills to use the material 
if obtained — the new Government found great and difficult 
problems confronting it on every hand. Colonel Northrop, 
with equal ability and zeal, organized the commissariat depart- 
ment ; prompt measures were taken to procure the materials 
for the manufacture of powder; and, under the well-directed 
skill of General Rains, we were enabled, before the close of 
the war, to boast of the best powder-mill in the world. 

Meanwhile, the Federal Government set fire to the United 
States armory at Harper's Ferry, the only establishment of 
the kind in the Southern States. After the Federal troops 
evacuated the place the citizens rallied and extinguished the 
fire, and saved from the flames a large part of the material 
and machinery, which was subsequently sent to the Confed- 
erate arsenals at Richmond and Fayettesville, thus supplying, 
to some extent, the existing want of means for the alteration 
and repair of arms, and contributing to the increase of the 
very scanty supply of arms with which the Confederacy was 
furnished when the war began. 



'j6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER III. 

ORGANIZATION OF OUR RESOURCES. 

The first difficulty that confronted the Confederate Gov- 
ernment was how to supply arms and munitions of war ; for, 
of men eager to defend their country there were many more 
than we could arm. 

The next problem was how to sustain our armies in the 
field. To support them it would require that the habits of 
our planters should be changed from the cultivation of staples 
for export, which had been their chief reliance in the past, 
to the production of supplies for home consumption. Hith- 
erto a large proportion of our food-supplies had been imported 
from the West. Yet, even under the embarrassment of the war, 
it was expected that, without preconcerted action, the planters 
would conform to the new conditions imposed by the existing 
situation ; and, extraordinary as it must appear, when viewed 
by comparison with the action of other people subjected to a 
like ordeal, the result, for a long time, justified the general 
expectation. 

Much of our success in solving this problem of subsist- 
ence was due to the existence of the much-maligned institu- 
tion of African servitude, which enabled the whites to enlist 
in the army and to leave the cultivation of their fields and 
the care of their stock to those who, in the language of the 
Constitution, were " held to service or labor." 

It may be said, in passing, that an irrefutable answer was 
given to the clamor about the " horrors of slavery " by the 
action of the owners of the slaves and by the conduct of the 
slaves during the long war between the States. Had these 
Africans been a cruelly oppressed people, restlessly struggling 
to be freed from their bonds, would their masters have dared to 
leave them, as was everywhere done, in charge of plantations on 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 7/ 

which their wives and children lived, and would the slaves have 
remained, as they did remain, continuing their usual duties; 
or could the Proclamation of Emancipation have been issued 
on the plea of military necessity if the fact had been that 
the negroes were forced to serve, and desired only an oppor- 
tunity to rise against their masters ? It will be remembered 
that when the Proclamation was issued it was confessed by 
President Lincoln to be a nullity beyond the limit within which 
it could be enforced by the Federal troops. 

As soon as the Confederate authorities were assured of an 
army as large as the population of the country could furnish 
and maintain, the next pressing problem that demanded their 
attention was the organization, instruction, and equipment of 
the army. 

Owing to the prevailing belief that there would be no war, 
or, if any, that it would be of very short duration, the first bill 
prepared by the Provisional Congress provided for receiving 
troops for sixty days. I desired it to be changed to a term 
of years. But the utmost efforts of Colonel Bartow and others 
procured only the modification of an extension of the term of 
service to twelve months " unless sooner discharged." 

The armies and munitions within the limits of the several 
States were regarded as entirely belonging to them ; the 
forces which were to constitute the provisional army could 
only be drawn from the several States with their consent, and 
these were to be organized under the State authority and to 
be received with their officers so appointed ; the lowest or- 
ganization was to be that of a company, and the highest that 
of a regiment ; and the appointment of general officers to com- 
mand these forces was confided to the Government of the 
Confederate States, should the assembling of large bodies of 
troops require organization above that of a regiment. Thus 
is clearly seen two facts : how little was anticipated a war of 
the vast proportions and great duration that ensued ; and how 
tenaciously the sovereignty and self-government of the States 
were adhered to. 

Further progress in the organization of measures for the 
public defence was made by the enactment of a law providing 
for the appointment to their relative rank, in the Confed- 



78 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

eracy, of officers who had resigned or should within six 
months resign from the Federal army ; and by the assignment 
under this act of Samuel Cooper to the duties of Adjutant- 
General of the Confederate States ; of Colonel L. P. Moore 
as Surgeon-General ; of General Gorgas as Chief of Ordnance, 
and of Colonel L. B. Northrop as Commissary-General. 

It is worthy of note that Samuel Cooper, A. Sidney John- 
ston, and R. E. Lee, the three officers highest in rank, and 
whose fame stands unchallenged for efficiency and zeal, were 
all so indifferent to any considerations of personal interest 
that each of them received notice of his appointment before 
he was aware it had been or was to be conferred. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 79 



CHAPTER IV. 

FEDERAL OPPRESSIONS IN MARYLAND. 

Maryland, although, for the time, she elected to remain 
neutral in the impending war, denied, at an early date, the 
right of way across her soil to Northern troops marching to 
invade the Southern States. On the i8th of April, three 
days after the requisition of the Secretary of War on States 
that had not seceded for their quota of troops to serve in the 
Federal army, Governor Hicks issued a proclamation in 
which he said, " I assure the people that no troops will be sent 
from Maryland, unless it may be for the defence of the Na- 
tional capital." On the following day (April 19, 1861) a 
body of Massachusetts troops arrived at the railroad depot. 
They were on their way South. The citizens assembled in 
large numbers, and, although unarmed and undisciplined, dis- 
puted their passage through the city. They attacked the 
troops with loose paving-stones and wounded several of them. 
The troops were ordered to fire on the multitude, and did so, 
killing a few and wounding others. The Baltimore police 
did their utmost to preserve peace, and rescued the baggage 
and munitions of the troops, which the citizens had secured. 
By order of Governor Hicks the rear portion of the troops 
were sent back to the borders of the State ; those who had 
got through the city passed on to Washington. 

President Lincoln, at an interview next day with the Mayor, 
promised that no more troops would be sent through Balti- 
more, unless obstructed in their transit in other directions. 
On the 5th of May the Relay House, at the junction of the 
Washington and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads, was occupied 
by United States troops under General B. F. Butler. On 
the 13th he moved a portion of the troops to Baltimore and 
took position on Federal Hill. Thus was consummated the 



80 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

military occupation of Baltimore. On the next day rein- 
forcements were received ; and, at the same time, the com- 
manding general issued a proclamation to the citizens in 
which he announced to them his purpose and authority to 
discriminate between citizens, those who agreed with him 
being denominated " well-disposed," and the others described 
with many offensive epithets. This was soon followed by a 
demand for the surrender of the arms stored by the city 
authorities in a warehouse. The police commissioners surren- 
dered the arms under protest, and they were removed to Fort 
McHenry. Baltimore was now disarmed. There was no 
longer necessity to regard the remonstrance of Baltimore 
against sending troops through the city, and it was thereafter 
disregarded, despite the pledges previously given by the Pres- 
ident. Under the pretext that he was believed to be cogni- 
zant of combinations of men waiting for an opportunity to 
unite with those in rebellion against the United States Gov- 
ernment, Marshal Kane was arrested, without legal warrant 
and without proof, and superseded by a provost-marshal ap- 
pointed by General Banks, who had succeeded to the com- 
mand. Thus began a reign of terror and unbridled despotism. 
The Provost-Marshal instituted a system of search and seizure, 
in private houses, of ammunition and arms of every descrip- 
tion. On the 1st of July General Banks, " in pursuance of 
orders issued from the head-quarters at Washington," arrested 
the members of the Board of Police, men respected, honored, 
and beloved by the people. Thenceforward arrests of the 
most illustrious citizens became the rule. Freedom of speech 
ceased to exist, and men were incarcerated for opinion's sake. 

In the Maryland Legislature the Hon. S. Teackle Wallis, 
from a committee to which was referred the memorial of the 
Police Commissioners arrested in Baltimore, made a report 
on the unconstitutionality of the act, and appealed in the 
most earnest manner to the whole people of the country, of 
all parties, sections, and opinions, to take warning by the 
usurpation mentioned, and come to the rescue of the free in- 
stitutions of the country. 

For no better reason, so far as the public were informed, 
than a vote, General Banks sent the Provost-Marshal to Fred- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 8l 

erick, where the Legislature was in session, and placed a cor- 
don of pickets around the town to prevent anyone from leav- 
ing it without a written permit from a member of his staff. 
Baltimore detectives then went into the town and arrested some 
twelve or fifteen members of the Legislature and several ofifi- 
cers; an act of violence which resulted in preventing an or- 
ganization of the Legislature. There was no lawful govern- 
ment left. Mr. Wallis, the author of the report, was among 
the members arrested and imprisoned ; and so also was Henry- 
May, a member of Congress who had introduced a resolution 
which he hoped would be promotive of peace. 

Henceforth the story of Maryland was sad to the last de- 
gree, only relieved by the valor of the gallant men who left 
their homes to fight the battle of State-rights, when Maryland 
no longer furnished them a field on which they could main- 
tain the rights their fathers bequeathed to them. Though 
Maryland did not become one of the Confederate States, she 
was endeared to the people thereof by many most endearing 
ties. Last in order, but first in cordiality, were the tender 
ministrations of her noble daughters to the sick and wounded 
prisoners who were carried through the streets of Baltimore ; 
and it is with shame we remember that brutal guards inflicted 
wounds upon gentlewomen who approached to offer to pris- 
oners the relief of which they so evidently stood in need. 
6 



82 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BATTLE OF MANASSAS. 

The Provisional Congress adjourned in May, " to meet 
again on the 20th of July, at Richmond," the President being 
authorized to select some other place " if any public emergency 
should render it impolitic to meet at Richmond." Shortly 
after the adjournment of Congress the hostile demonstrations 
of the Federal Government against Virginia caused the Presi- 
dent to proceed to Richmond, and to order the removal thither 
of the Executive Departments and their archives as soon as 
could be conveniently done. Richmond was the place best 
adapted for the execution of all necessary measures for the 
defence and protection of Virginia, which the accumulation of 
hostile forces on the Potomac sufificiently demonstrated to be 
destined to an early aggressive movement. 

At Richmond, the forces that had assembled there from 
other States of the Confederacy were divided into three 
armies, which occupied the most important positions threat- 
ened : one, at Harper's Ferry, covering the valley of the 
Shenandoah, under General J. E. Johnston ; another, under 
General Beauregard, at Manassas, covering the direct ap- 
proach from Washington to Richmond ; and the third, under 
Generals Huger and Magruder, at Norfolk and on the pen- 
insula between the James and York Rivers, covering the 
approach from the seaboard. 

The armies of Johnston and Beauregard, although both 
were confronted by forces greatly superior in numbers to their 
own, and although separated by the Blue Ridge, yet had such 
practicable communication with each other as to render their 
junction possible when the necessity should be foreseen. 

General R. E. Lee, as commander of the army of Vir- 
ginia, had established his head-quarters in Richmond. He 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 83 

possessed my unqualified confidence both as a soldier and a 
patriot, and the command he had exercised over the army of 
Virginia, before her accession to the Confederacy, gave him 
that special knowledge which at the time was most needful. 

Various skirmishes between Confederate and Federal 
troops demonstrated the fact that the individuality, self-reli- 
ance, and habitual use of small arms by the people of the 
South was, to some extent, a substitute for military training ; 
and that the want of such training made the Northern new 
levies inferior to the same kind of Southern troops. 

Military reasons rendered it desirable to hold Harper's 
Ferry as long as was consistent with safety, especially to 
secure the removal of the valuable machinery and material 
in the armory there which the enemy had failed to destroy. 
General Johnston earnestly insisted on being allowed to retire 
to a position near Winchester, and was authorized by the War 
Department to exercise his own discretion in doing so. 

Meanwhile, the massing of troops in Washington indicated 
the intention of an invasion of Virginia at an early date. As 
soon as I became satisfied that Manassas was the objective 
point of the intended movement, I urged General Johnston to 
make preparations for a junction with General Beauregard; 
and on the 17th of July he was notified by telegraph that 
General Beauregard had been attacked, and that, to strike an 
effective blow, a junction of all of his effective force was 
needed. 

In order to avert any possible complication and misunder- 
standing between the two generals, which I had some reasons 
to fear, I decided to go to the army in person at the earliest 
moment. 

I delivered my message to Congress on Saturday, July 
20th, and on the following morning I left for Manassas. As 
we approached Manassas Railroad Junction I found a large 
number of men bearing the usual evidence of those who leave 
the field of battle under a panic. They crowded around the 
train with fearful stories of a defeat of our army. The coolest 
man among them repeated that our line was broken, that all 
was in confusion, that the army and the battle were lost. Pro- 
ceeding onward, by detaching a locomotive, we soon reached 



84 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

head-quarters, and, procuring horses, started to the field. The 
stragglers soon became numerous, and we were earnestly 
warned not to proceed. As we advanced, the storm of the 
battle was rolling westward and its fury becam.e more faint. 
When I met General Johnston he informed me that we had 
won the battle. I left him, and rode still farther to the west. 
In riding over the ground it seemed quite possible to mark 
the line of a fugitive's flight — there was a musket, there a 
cartridge-box, there a blanket or overcoat or haversack, as if 
the runner had stripped himself as he ran of all impediments 
to speed. 

As we approached toward the left of our line the signs of 
an utter rout of the enemy were unmistakable, and justified 
the conclusion that the watchword of " On to Richmond " 
had been changed to " Off for Washington." 

On the extreme left of our field of operations I found the 
troops whose opportune arrival had averted impending dis- 
aster or had so materially contributed to our victory. Some 
of them, under General E. K. Smith, after arriving at the 
Manassas Railroad Junction, hastened to our left ; others, 
under General (then Colonel) Early, made a rapid march, 
under the pressing necessity, from the extreme right of our 
line to and beyond our left, so as to attack the enemy in flank, 
thus inflicting on them the discomfiture by oblique move- 
ment they designed to inflict on us. All these troops and the 
others near them had gone into action without supplies and 
camp equipage. Weary, hungry, and without shelter, night 
closed around them where they stood, the blood-stained 
victors on a hard-fought field. 

It is not my purpose in this volume to describe the battles 
of the war. To the reports of officers serving in the field 
with the armies of both governments the student of history 
must turn for knowledge of the details. My sole object is 
to vindicate the rightful action of the Southern people in 
maintaining the sovereignty of their States against wrongful 
and unconstitutional usurpation of power by their common 
agent, the Federal Government, and to defend them from the 
aspersions of unscrupulous partisans who have maligned as 
rebels and traitors men true to their allegiance and defenders of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 85 

the Constitution. The military operations of the Confederate 
States need no defence ; the bravery of our armies and the 
genius of their commanders were displayed on many battle- 
fields, and the results, which could neither be misrepresented 
nor ignored, have made it impossible even for the most 
partisan zeal to withhold the admiration a,lways, however 
reluctantly, awarded to devotion to country, backed by self- 
sacrificing courage and fortitude. The limits of this volume 
will permit little more than a passing reference to the battles 
of the Confederacy — a bald statement of the numbers engaged, 
the names of their commanders, and the result of the more 
important engagements. 

The battle of Manassas — as it was called by the South — 
or of Bull Run — as it was called by the North — had an im- 
portant influence on the subsequent conduct of the war. It 
produced a panic in the North, and taught the enemy that 
the policy of subjugation could only be successful by the 
employment of all its resources of money and men. In the 
South, if the great victory excited intense feeling and inspired 
an overweening confidence, it also removed all doubt as to 
the intent to wage war upon us, and begat an increased desire 
to enter the military service. But for our want of arms and 
ammunition we could have enrolled an army little short of 
the number of able-bodied men in the Confederate States. 

When the smoke of battle had lifted from the field of 
Manassas, and the rejoicing over the victory had spread over 
the land and spent its exuberance, some who, like Job's war- 
horse, sniffed the battle from afar, but in whom the likeness 
there ceased, asked why the fruits of this victory had not been 
gathered by the capture of Washington City, and promulgated 
the allegation that the President had prevented the generals 
from making an immediate and vigorous pursuit of the routed 
enemy. This slanderous accusation was afterward refuted by 
the generals in command : it did not rest on any semblance of 
truth. I had in no way interfered with the plans or action 
of the officers in charge, and only note the slander now 
because it has been repeated, since the war, by writers who 
have never seen, or have chosen to ignore, the official refutation 
of the calumny. 



86 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

NEUTRALITY OF KENTUCKY. 

Early in the controversy between the Federal Govern- 
ment and the seceding States, Kentucky, without deciding 
against the right of secession, declared that she would hold a 
position of neutrality in the impending war. With a view to 
pursue this policy, unmolested by the forces of either party, 
the Governor entered into a correspondence with Mr. Lincoln, 
as President of the United States, and with myself, as Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States, explaining the policy of neu- 
trality, asking for the removal of the Federal forces from the 
State, and an assurance that no Confederate forces should be 
permitted to invade the State. President Lincoln declined to 
comply with the request, and intimated that he believed the 
presence of Federal troops was desired by " a majority of the 
Union-loving people of Kentucky." On behalf of the Con- 
federate Government I gave the assurance that we " neither 
desired nor intended to "disturb the neutrality of Kentucky," 
and added, " but neutrality, to be entitled to respect, must 
be strictly maintained between both parties ; for if the door 
be opened on the one side for the aggression of one of the 
belligerent parties upon the other, it ought not to be shut to 
the assailed when they seek to enter it for purposes of self- 
defence." 

During the following month the movements of the Fed- 
eral forces in Southwestern Kentucky, threatening two Con- 
federate States, rendered it absolutely necessary for General 
Polk, the Confederate commander, to occupy the town of 
Columbus, Ky., a most important strategic point. General 
Grant, baffled by this movement, then seized Paducah and 
occupied it in force. 

To the request of the Governor of Kentucky for the with- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 8/ 

drawal of the Confederate troops. General Polk, after courte 
ously expla.n.ng that the threatening attitude o the Fede ai 
commander had made the occupation of Columbus efsen a 
to the protection of Southeastern Missouri and We tern Te' 
nessee, offered to evacuate his position and pled<.e hk c!^ 
ment to refrain from any subsfquent invasion of the ttZ" 
of Kentucky, provided that the Governor should ecu eT 
sunultaneous withdrawal of the Federal forces ,!d , 

pledge from the Federal Governmen Ho^^eTti 11^ hi 
Governor of Kentucky might have been to accrde to tt 
propos,t,on of General Polk, the State of Kentucky had no 
power to prevent the United States Government from 
her soil as best might suit its purposes in the war i ^'"^ 

.ng for the subjugation of theLe'ded States Pr ide^t S" 
coin, in his message of the nrevfon^ T,.],. u a "^^'^^^^ ^'n- 
reproachfully spoken of the'^ra'Tniut,.^;:' 'T^I . '"' 
/'To prevent the Union forces passing one way or he dis 
umon he other, over their soil, would be^disunioTcompfeted" 
At a stroke it would take all the trouble off the handTof se 
ce.,on, except only what proceeds from the external block: 

..Gen 1 p,. Show d.th':r:Lt unitStL -rer:: 

preve.theene;X\r,tSsstro7!f "°'™^- ^ 
th.^^'u-°'"'"'°°P' '''■'' ™*"'^'' Columbus they found that 
Uni'd s;l::!fo T" ■: ^'^™ ^^°" ^emonstrLons of tl 

eraTe troops A T ^ '^'^ '^" "° '^"'^^ °' *e Confed- 
ate troops As far as the truth could be ascertained a de- 

ester'rio °;'!>?^°'"r' ''^"'"*>'' ^^--"3' its s uth- 
thev have f" '^ "'""= '° remaining in the Union. Could 

h 'e can J: nttTT f '". ' ''°^' ''™^ "^= --^'='' '° «>em 

af bribery would h' ">«' -nule-contracts and other forms 

bribery would have proved unavailing to make herthepas- 



gg A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

sive observer of usurpations destructive of the personal and 
political rights of which she had been always a most earnest 
advocate With the slow and sinuous approach of a ser- 
pent the General Government, little by little, gained power 
overKentucky, and then, throwing of^ the mask^ proceeded to 
outrages so regardless of law and the usages of English-speak- 
ing peoples as could not have been anticipated, and can only 
be remembered with shame by those who honor the constitu- 
tional government created by the States. While artfully urg- 
ing the maintenance of the Union as a duty of patriotism, the 
Constitution which gave the Union birth was trampled under 
foot, and the excesses of the Reign of Terror which followed 
the French Revolution were re-enacted in our land, once the 
vaunted home of law and liberty. Men who had been most 
honored by the State, and who had reflected back most honor 
upon it were seized without warrant and condemned without 
trial, because they had exercised the privilege of free speech, 
and for adhering to the principles which were the bed-rock on 
which our fathers builded our political temple. Members of 
the Legislature vacated their seats and left the State to avoid 
arrest, the penalty hanging over them for opinion s sake Ihe 
venerable Judge Monroe, who had presided over the United 
States District Court for more than a generation, driven from 
the land of his birth, the State he had served so long and so 
well with feeble step but a bright conscience and indomitable 
will,' sought a resting-place among those who did not regard it 
as a crime to adhere to the principles of 1776 and 1789, and 
the declaratory affirijiation of them in the resolutions of 179^ 
and 1799 About the same time others of great worth and 
distinction left the land violated by despotic usurpation to 
ioin the Confederacy in its struggle to maintain the personal 
and political liberties which the men of the Revolution had 
left as an inheritance to their prosperity-such men as J . C. 
Breckenridge, late Vice-President of the United States ; WiU- 
iam Preston, George W. Johnston, S. B. Buckner, John H. 
Moro-an, and a host of others, alike meritorious and gratefully 
remembered for their great and conspicuous services to the 

Confederacy. , -j j „„ri 

When the passions of the hour shall have subsided, and 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 89 

the past shall be reviewed with discrimination and justice, the 
question must arise in any reflecting mind, Why did such men 
as these expatriate themselves, and surrender all the advan- 
tages which they had won by a life of honorable effort in the 
land of their nativity ? To such an inquiry the answer must 
be, that the usurpation of the General Government foretold 
to them the wreck of constitutional liberty. 



90 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CONTEST IN MISSOURI. 

Missouri, like Kentucky, desired to preserve peaceful 
relations in the impending conflict between the Northern and 
Southern States. When the General Government denied 
her the right of choice, and she was driven to the necessity of 
deciding whether or not her citizens should be forced to aid 
in the subjugation of the South, her people and their repre- 
sentatives — the State Government — repelled the arbitrary 
assumption of authority to control by military force her Gov- 
ernment and her people. 

Among other acts of invasion, the Federal troops had gone 
to Belmont, a Missouri village opposite Columbus, and 
threatened the inhabitants of that town with artillery. After 
the occupation of Columbus, under these circumstances of full 
justification, a small Confederate force was thrown across the 
Mississippi to hold and occupy Belmont. On the 6th of 
November, 1861, General Polk, divining the real purpose of 
General Grant in landing a force at Paducah, in Kentucky, 
sent General Pillow, with about 2,000 men, to reinforce the 
garrison at Belmont. Very soon after their arrival the 
enemy began an assault, which was steadily resisted, and with 
varying fortune, for several hours. The enemy's front so far 
exceeded the length of our line as to enable her to attack on 
both flanks. Our troops were finally driven back to the bank 
of the river with the loss of their battery, which had been gal- 
lantly and efficiently served until nearly all the horses had 
been killed and the ammunition had been expended. The 
enemy advanced to the bank of the river, below the point to 
which our men had retreated, and opened an artillery fire on 
the town of Columbus, to which our guns from the command- 
ing height responded with such effect as to drive them from 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. pi 

the river bank. In the meantime General Polk had sent 
three regiments to reinforce General Pillow. On the arrival 
of the first of these three regiments. General Pillow led it to 
a favorable position, where, for some time, it steadily resist- 
ed and checked the advance of the enemy. General Pillow, 
with great energy and gallantry, rallied his repulsed troops 
and brought them again into action. General Polk now pro- 
ceeded in person with two other regiments. The enemy com- 
menced a retreat. 

General Polk reported : " We pursued them to their boats, 
seven miles, and then drove their boats before us. The road 
was strewn with their dead and wounded, guns, ammunition, 
and equipments. The number of prisoners taken by the 
enemy, as shown by their list furnished, was over one hun- 
dred and six, all of whom have been returned by exchange. 
After making a liberal allowance to the enemy, a hundred of 
their prisoners still remain in my hands, one stand of colors, 
and a fraction over i,ooo stand of arms, with knapsacks, 
ammunition, and other military stores. Our loss in killed, 
wounded, and missing is 642 ; that of the enemy was proba- 
bly not less than 1,200." 

Though the forces engaged in this battle were small in 
comparison with those engaged in subsequent battles of the 
war, yet six hours of incessant combat, with repeated bayonet 
charges, must place this in the list of the most stubborn 
engagements, and victors must accord to the vanquished the 
meed of having fought like Americans. One of the results of 
the battle, which is at least significant, is the fact that Gen- 
eral Grant, who had superciliously refused to recognize Gen- 
eral Polk as one with whom he could exchange prisoners, did, 
after the battle, send a flag of truce to get such privileges as 
are recognized between armies acknowledging each other to 
be " foemen worthy of their steel." 



92 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GENERAL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON. 

In the meantime General Albert Sidney Johnston, having 
resigned from the United States Army and tendered his ser- 
vices to the Confederate States, had been assigned to com- 
mand our army of the West, which included the States of 
Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, 
and the Indian country west of the Mississippi River. On 
assuming command he found that he lacked not only men, 
but munitions of war. There were men enough ready and 
eager to enlist, but the arms and equipments had been nearly 
exhausted in fitting out the first levies. 

General Johnston located his line of defence from Colum- 
bus on the west to the Cumberland Mountains on the east, 
with his centre resting at Bowling Green, which he occupied 
on October 28th, with 12,000 troops, and intrenched. It was 
a good basis for military operations, a proper depot for sup- 
plies, and, when fortified, could be held against large and 
superior forces. 

By the end of November the enemy's force had increased 
to 50,000, and continued to be reinforced until it numbered 
between 75,000 and 100,000 strong; while the Confederate 
force numbered never more than about 22,000. 

General Johnston sent earnest and urgent appeals for arms 
to the Governors of Alabama and Georgia, to General Bragg, 
in command at Pensacola, and to the Confederate Govern- 
ment ; but, although he stated that 30,000 stand of arms 
were a necessity to his command, only one thousand stand 
could be sent to him. During the autumn of 1861 fully one- 
half of General Johnston's troops were imperfectly armed, and 
whole brigades remained without weapons for months. These 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 93 

details illustrate the deficiencies existing in every department 
of the military service during the first year of the war. 

Meanwhile, despite the failure to obtain arms or to in- 
crease his force so as to render it adequate to the services that 
were expected of it, General Johnston, by the masterly con- 
centration of his troops, and by frequent and rapid expeditions 
through the sparsely settled country, kept the enemy in con- 
stant expectation of an attack, and under the apprehension 
that he commanded a large army. 



94 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER IX. 

FEDERAL OUTRAGES IN MISSOURI. 

Missouri, when a requisition was made to her by Presi- 
dent Lincoln to contribute a quota of troops to be employed 
against the States that had seceded, replied, in the words of 
her Governor, that " the requisition is illegal, unconstitutional, 
revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical, and cannot be complied 
with." 

Like Kentucky, Missouri sought to occupy a neutral posi- 
tion in the war between the States ; and, like Kentucky, of- 
fered guarantees of peace and order throughout her territory 
if left free to control her own affairs. Both refused to furnish 
troops for the unconstitutional purpose of coercing the South- 
ern States. Both, because of their stronger affinity to the 
South than to the North, were the objects of suspicion, and 
consequent military occupation by Federal troops. 

During a temporary absence of General Harney, Captain 
(afterward General) Nathaniel Lyons initiated hostilities 
against the State of Missouri, under the following circum- 
stances. 

In obedience to the militia laws of the State, an annual 
encampment was directed by the Governor for instruction in 
tactics. Camp Jackson, near St. Louis, was designated for 
the encampment of the militia of the country in 1861. Here, 
for some days, companies of State militia, numbering about 
eight hundred men, under the command of Brigadier-General 
Frost, were exercised as is usual on such occasions. They 
presented no appearance of a hostile camp. Visitors were 
freely admitted ; it was the pleasure-ground for the ladies of 
the city. 

Suddenly Captain Lyon appeared with an overwhelming 
force of Federal troops, surrounded this holiday encampment, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 95 

and demanded an unconditional surrender. Resistance was 
impracticable, and none was attempted. The militia surren- 
dered, and were confined as prisoners. There was no war, and 
no warrant for their arrest as offenders against the law. It is 
left for the usurpers to frame a vocabulary suited to their act. 

General Frost, in a letter to General Harney, on his return, 
thus described the further proceedings of the Federal troops : 

" My command was deprived of their arms, and surrendered 
into the hands of Captain Lyon, after which, while thus dis- 
armed and surrounded, a fire was opened on a portion of it 
by his troops and a number of my men put to death, with 
several innocent lookers-on — men, women, and children." 

" A large crowd of citizens," says Bevier,* " were gathered 
around, gazing curiously at those strange proceedings, when a 
volley was fired into them, killing ten and wounding twenty 
non-combatants — mostly women and children. A reign of 
terror was at once established, and the most severe measures 
were adopted by the Federals to overcome the rage of the 
people." 

This massacre produced intense excitement throughout 
the State. The State Legislature forthwith passed a law for 
the enrolment and organization of the militia, and conferring 
special power on the Governor. 

General Price, appointed under these laws, at the urgent 
solicitations of leading citizens, conferred with General Harney. 
The result was that General Harney, on behalf of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, and General Price, on behalf of 
Missouri, promulgated an agreement that did much to allay 
excitement. General Price agreed to wield the entire force of 
the State to suppress all unlawful proceedings ; and General 
Harney, that he would have no occasion, as he had no wish, 
to make military movements that might otherwise create 
excitement and jealousy. The distinct position of General 
Harney, that the military force of the United States should 
not be used in Missouri, except in case of necessity, and the 
emphatic declaration of General Price, that he had the power, 
and would use it, to preserve peace and order in Missouri, 

* See " Confederate First and Second Brigades," pp. 24-26. 



96 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

seemed to remove all danger of collision in that State be- 
tween the Federal and State forces. 

General Price at once disbanded and sent home the forces 
that had assembled to defend the capital of the State against 
an anticipated attack of United States troops. But, while 
this prospect of peace gave ground for satisfaction, a doubt of 
the good faith of the Government was soon aroused by the 
removal of General Harney from command, because, as many 
believed, of his successful efforts to allay excitement and avoid 
war. 

The principal United States arsenal at the West was at St. 
Louis, and to it there had been transferred so large a number 
of the altered muskets sent from Springfield, Mass., that, in 
1 86 1, the arms in that arsenal were numerically second only 
to those at Springfield. These arms, by a conjunction of bold 
and deceptive measures, were removed and transported to 
Illinois. 

Not satisfied with removing the public arms from the 
limits of Missouri, the next step was, that, in total disrespect 
of the constitutional right of the citizens to bear arms for their 
own defence, and to be free from searches and seizures, except 
by warrants duly issued, the ofificers of the General Govern- 
ment proceeded to search the houses of citizens in St. Louis 
and to seize arms wherever they were found. Missouri had 
refused to engage in war against her sister States of the South ; 
therefore she was the first to be disarmed and then to be made 
a victim of an invasion characterized by such barbarous atro- 
cities as shame the civilization of the age. The wrongs she 
suffered, the brave efforts of her unarmed people to defend 
their hearthstones and their liberties against the desecration 
and destruction of both, form a melancholy chapter in the 
history of the United States, which all who would cherish their 
fair fame must wish could be obliterated. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 97 



CHAPTER X. 

MISSOURI DISARMED. 



These acts of usurpation and outrage on the political and 
personal rights of the people of Missouri aroused an intense 
feeling in that State. 

The position of Missouri in 1860-61 was unquestionably 
that of opposition to the secession of the State. Not a sin-le 
secessionist was elected to the State Convention, and General 
Price, an avowed "Union man," was chosen as its President 
Hence the general satisfaction at the agreement between Gen^ 
era] Harney and General Price. 

After the removal of General Harney reports were rife of 
a purpose of the Administration at Washington to disarm the 
citizens of Missouri who did not sympathize with the policy 
o the General Government, and to put arms into the hands 
of those who could be relied on to enforce it. Referring to 
these reports m an address to the people, on the 4th of jtne 
General Price declared that "the purpose of such a move 
ment could not be misunderstood, and it would not only be 
a palpabe violation of the agreement referred to [his agree- 
ment with General Harney], and an equally plain violation 
o const^utional rights, but a gross indignity t'o the citizens 
of the State that should be resisted to the last extremity." 

After the call of President Lincoln for seventy-five thou- 
sand volunteers had dispelled all doubt of the intention of the 

as'rttr rT' '" '°'''' ""^ ^'""'^ '^'' should claim to 
for fi / L"^ . sovereignty. General Jackson issued a call 

attemo'^t .o'"rf ""'"T'' '^ ''''''''' '^' State against any 
attempt to interfere with her right to exercise supreme con- 
trol over her own domestic affairs. General Price took the 
neia in command. 

After the removal of General Harney, the Governor, in the 



98 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



interest of peace, proposed to the General's successor to dis- 
band the State guard and break up its organization ; to disarm 
all companies that had been armed by the State; to pledge 
himself not to organize the militia under the military bill; 
that no arms or munitions of war should be brought into the 
State • that he would protect the citizens equally in all their 
ri-hts' regardless of their political opinions ; that he would re- 
press all insurrectionary movements within the State; would 
repel all attempts to invade it, from whatever quarter and by 
whomsoever made; and would maintain a strict neutrality, 
and preserve the peace of the State. And further, if neces- 
sary he would invoke the assistance of the United States 
troops to carry out the pledges. The only conditions to these 
propositions made by the Governor were that the United 
States Government should undertake to disarm the " Home 
Guard " which it had illegally organized and armed through- 
out the State, and pledge itself not to occupy with its troops 
any localities in the State not held by them at that time. 

" Nothing," said the Governor, " but the most earnest de- 
sire to avert the horrors of cruel war from our beloved State 
could have tempted me to propose these humiliating terms. 
They were rejected by the Federal officers." 

They demanded not only the disarming and disorganiza- 
tion of the State militia and the nullification of the military 
bill but they refused to disarm their own " Home Guard 
and insisted that the Government of the United States should 
enjoy an unrestricted right to move and station its troops 
whenever and wherever it might, in the opinion of its officers, 
be necessary either for the protection of its - loyal subjects 
or for the repelling of invasion ; and they plainly announced 
that it was the intention of the Administration to take mili- 
tary occupation of the whole State, and to reduce it as 
avowed by General Lyon, to " the exact condition of Mary- 

land." , . J.Jo 

The United States Government had therein adopted a 
policy that involved the subjugation of every State, either by 
voluntary submission or conquest. However much a State 
might desire peace and neutrality, its own will could not elect. 
The scheme demanded the absolute sovereignty of the Gen- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 99 

eral Government, the extinguishment of the independence 
and sovereignty of the State. Such a policy was revolutionary 
in the extreme. It involved the entire subversion of those 
principles on which the American Union was founded, and of 
the compact or constitution of that Union. The Constitution 
of the United States, in the hands of those who now wielded 
its authority, was made the bloody instrument to establish 
these usurpations on the ruins of the crushed hopes of man- 
kind for federative strength with community freedom under 
constitutional government. For the justness and truthful- 
ness of these allegations I appeal to the impartial and sober 
judgment of posterity. 



ICX) A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XL 

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI. 

The volunteers who assembled under General Jackson's 
proclamation of June 13th had few arms except their squirrel 
rifles and shot-guns, and could hardly be said to have any 
military equipments. 

On the 20th of June, 1861, General Lyon and Colonel 
Frank P. Blair, with an estimated force of 7,000 well-armed 
troops, having 8 pieces of artillery, ascended the Missouri 
River and debarked five miles below Boonville. To oppose 
them the Missourians had then about 800 men, poorly armed, 
without a piece of artillery, and with but little ammunition. 
With a courage that must be commended at the expense of 
their discretion, they resolved to engage the enemy, and after 
a combat of an hour and a half, or more, retired, having in- 
flicted heavy loss and suffered but little themselves. This 
first skirmish of the Missouri militia inspired confidence in 
their fellow-citizens, and taught the enemy to respect a force 
which they had hitherto affected to despise, a double effect 
which was increased by another victory by a small force, com- 
manded by Colonel O'Kane, over a much superior force of 
the enemy, at Cole Camp, in which 206 Federal soldiers were 
killed and wounded, and over 100 taken prisoners, and 360 
muskets with bayonets were captured. The Missourians lost 
4 killed and from 15 to 20 wounded. 

General Price, with a view to draw his army from the base 
line of the enemy — the Missouri — ordered his troops to the 
southeastern portion of the State. The column from Lexing- 
ton marched without transportation, without tents or blan- 
kets, and relied for subsistence on the country through which 
it passed, being, in the meantime, closely pursued by the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. IQI 

enemy. The movement was successfully made, and a junction 
effected in Cedar County with the forces there present under 
Governor Jackson. The united force numbered about 3,600 
men. 

" This, then, was the patriot army of Missouri. It was a 
heterogeneous mass, representing every condition of Western 
life. There were the young and old, the rich and poor, the 
grave and gay, the planter and laborer, the farmer and clerk, 
the hunter and boatman, the merchant and woodsman. At 
least 500 of these men were entirely unarmed. Many had 
only the common rifle and shot-gun. None were provided 
with cartridges and canteens. They had 8 pieces of cannon, 
but no shells, and very few solid shot or rounds of grape and 
canister. 

" Rude and almost incredible devices were made to sup- 
ply these wants. Trace-chains, iron rods, hard pebbles, and 
smooth stones were substituted for shot." 

Continuing his march toward Southern Missouri, Governor 
Jackson found that he was threatened in his rear by a force 
nearly equal to his own, while immediately in front, at the 
town of Carthage, a large hostile force awaited his coming, to 
dispute his passage. These undisciplined, poorly-armed Mis- 
sourians were now in a position that might well have appalled 
less heroic men. 

Nothing daunted, they moved forward, attacked the enemy 
in position, and, after a severe engagement, routed him ; 
pursued him to a second position, from which he was again 
driven, falling back on Carthage, where he made his last 
stand, on being driven from which, as was subsequently as- 
certained, he continued his retreat all night. The dead and 
wounded of the enemy, during this retreat, were estimated at 
from 150 to 200 killed and from 300 to 400 wounded. Several 
hundred muskets were captured, and thus the Missourians 
were better prepared for future conflict. Our loss was be- 
tween 40 and 50 killed and from 125 to 150 wounded. 

Such heroism and self-sacrifice as these undisciplined and 
unequipped men displayed claims special mention as bearing 
evidence not only of the valor of the men, but the sanctity of 
the cause that could so inspire them. Unsupported, save by 



102 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the consciousness of a just cause, without other sympathy 
than that which the Confederate States fully gave, despising 
the plea of helplessness, and defying the threats of a powerful 
Government to crush her, Missouri, without arms or other 
military preparations, took up the gauntlet thrown at her feet, 
and dared to make war in defence of the laws and liberties of 
her people. 

If any shall ask why I have entered into such details of 
engagements where the forces were comparatively so small 
and the results so little affected the general results of the war, 
the reply is, that such heroism and self-sacrifice as these un- 
disciplined, partially armed, unequipped men displayed against 
superior numbers, possessed of all the appliances of war, claim 
special notice as bearing evidence not only of the virtue of the 
men, but of the sanctity of the cause that could so inspire 
them. Unsupported, save by the consciousness of a just 
cause, without other sympathy than that which the Confeder- 
ate States freely gave, despising the plea of helplessness, and 
defying the threats of a powerful Government to crush her, 
Missouri, without arms or other military preparation, took up 
the gauntlet thrown at her feet, and dared to make war in 
defence of the laws and liberties of her people. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 103 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONFEDERATE AID TO MISSOURI. 

In the next battle after Carthage Missourians were no 
longer to be alone. The Confederate States, themselves en- 
gaged in an unequal struggle for existence, by act of Congress 
declared that, if Missouri was engaged in repelling a lawless 
invasion of her territory by armed force, it was their right and 
duty to aid the people and government of that State; and, on 
the 6th of August, appropriated one million dollars " to aid 
the people of the State of Missouri in the effort to maintain, 
within their own limits, the constitutional liberty which it is 
the purpose of the Confederate States in the existing war to 
vindicate." General McCullough, with a brigade of Confed- 
erate troops, marched from Arkansas to make a junction with 
General Price, then threatened with an attack by a large force 
of the enemy under General Lyon, which was concentrated 
near Springfield, Mo. The battle was fiercely contested, but 
finally won by our troops. In this action General Lyon was 
killed while gallantly trying to rally his discomfited troops. 

After this battle General McCullough with his brigade re- 
turned to Arkansas. General John C. Fr6mont was assigned 
to the command made vacant by General Lyon's death. He 
signalized his entrance on the duty by a proclamation confis- 
cating the estates and slave-property of " rebels." 

On the loth of September, when General Price was about 
to go into camp, he learned that a detachment of Federal 
troops were marching to Warrensburg to seize the funds of 
the bank there and to arrest and plunder the citizens of John- 
son County in accordance with General Fremont's proclama- 
tion and instructions. General Price, with his mounted men, 
pressed forward to Warrensburg, where he found that the 
enemy had hastily fled. "With his whole force he followed 



I04 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

them to Lexington. There he found the enemy in strong in- 
trenchments and well supplied with artillery. The place was 
stubbornly defended. On the morning of the 20th General 
Price ordered a number of bales of hemp to be transported to 
the point from which the advance of his troops had been re- 
peatedly repulsed. They were ranged in a line for a breast- 
work, and when rolled before the men as they advanced 
formed a moving rampart which was proof against shot, and 
could only be overcome by a sortie in force, which th enemy 
did not dare to make. On came the hempen brer twork, 
while Price's artillery continued an effective fire. In the 
afternoon of the 20th the enemy hung out a white flag. The 
Federal forces, to the number of 3,500, surrendered as prisoners 
of war ; also 7 pieces of artillery, over 3,000 stand of muskets, 
an innumerable number of slaves, a large supply of ammuni- 
tion and commissary stores, a number of horses and other 
property, including the great seal of the State and the public 
records, and about $9,000, of which the bank of Lexington 
had been robbed, and which was promptly returned to it. 

After the first day of the siege of Lexington General 
Price sent General D. R. Atchison to join General Sturgis, 
who, with 1,500 cavalry, was coming to the aid of General 
Price, against whose little army it was learned that Lane and 
Montgomery, from Kansas, with 4,000 men, were rapidly ad- 
vancing along the north side of the Missouri River. When 
General Atchison had joined the forces of General Sturgis, 
after two-thirds of them had been passed over the river, the 
remaining 500 were unexpectedly attacked by the vastly su- 
perior force from Kansas. The Missourians, led and cheered 
by General Atchison, whom they had so long and deservedly 
honored, met the assault with such determination that, fight- 
ing with the skill of woodsmen and hunters, they put the 
enemy to rout, pursuing them for a distance of ten miles and 
inflicting heavy loss upon them, while that of the Missourians 
was but 5 killed and 20 wounded. 

These victories, which so far exceeded what might have 
been expected from the small forces by which they were 
achieved, had caused an augmentation of the enemy's troops 
to an estimated number of 70,000. As General Price could 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. IO5 

not hope successfully to contend against such an army, he re- 
tired toward the southwestern part of the State. The want 
of supplies and transportation forced him to disband a portion 
of his troops. With the rest he continued his retreat to 
Neosha. 

Here Governor Jackson had convened the Legislature, 
and it had passed the ordinance of secession. 

If other evidence were wanting, the fact that, without gov- 
ernmental aid, without a military chest, without munitions of 
war, the campaign in Missouri had so far been carried on by 
the voluntary service of its citizens and the free-will offerings 
of its people must be conclusive proof that the ordinance of 
secession was the true expression of the will of the people of 
the State. 



I06 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OPERATIONS OF GENERALS WISE, FLOYD, AND LEE. 

In June, 1861, Brigadier-General Henry A. Wise offered 
his services to the Confederacy to resist the threatened 
invasion of the Kanawha Valley. He was sent there, with 
a small force, which was to serve as a nucleus to the force he 
hoped to raise. After the small but brilliant affair of Stony 
Creek he prepared to give battle to the enemy, then advanc- 
ing up the valley under General Cox ; but, the defeat of our 
forces at Laurel Hill uncovering his right and endangering his 
rear, he was compelled to fall back on Lewisburg. 

Meanwhile Brigadier-General John B. Floyd had raised 
a brigade in Southwestern Virginia and advanced to the 
support of General Wise. General Floyd engaged the enemy 
in several brilliant skirmishes, and subsequently intrenched 
himself on the Gauley, where he was attacked by General 
Rosecrans with greatly superior numbers. The attack was 
a failure ; the enemy suffered heavily and withdrew after 
nightfall. General Floyd then joined the forces under Gen- 
eral Wise, and they fell back toward Sewell's Mountain ; but 
the want of concert between these two officers, which had 
been displayed in the past, again prevented their entire co- 
operation and destroyed all hopes of future harmony. 

General Loring had succeeded General Garnett, and was 
in command of the remnant of the force defeated at Laurel 
Hill. General R. E. Lee was now ordered to proceed to West- 
ern Virginia. It was hoped that he would be able to retrieve 
the disaster we had suffered at Laurel Hill, and, by combining 
all our forces in Western Virginia in one plan of operations, 
give protection to that portion of our country. Reinforce- 
ments had been sent to Valley Mountain, the head-quarters of 
General Loring. Thither General Lee promptly proceeded. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 10/ 

The season had been one of extraordinary rains, rendering 
the mountain-roads, ordinarily difficult, almost impassable. 
With unfaltering purpose and energy General Lee crossed the 
Alleghany Mountains, and learning that the main encamp- 
ment of the enemy was in the valley of Tygart River and 
Elk Run, Randolph County, he directed his march toward 
that position. The troops of General H. R. Jackson, with 
those under General Loring, were about 3,500 men. The 
force of the enemy was very much greater. At the detached 
work at Cheat Mountain Pass we learned that there were 
3,000 men, being but a fraction less than our whole force. After 
a careful reconnaissance General Lee decided to attack the 
main encampment of the enemy by a movement of his troops 
converging upon the valley from three directions. The 
colonel of one of his regiments, who had reconnoitred the 
position of the works at Cheat Mountain Pass, reported that 
it was feasible to turn it and carry it by assault, and he was 
assigned to make the attack. General Lee ordered other 
portions of his force to take position on the spurs overlooking 
the enemy's main encampment, while he led three regiments 
to the height below and nearest to the position of the 
enemy. The instructions were that the officers sent to turn 
the position at Cheat Mountain Pass should approach it 
at early dawn, and immediately open fire, which was to be 
the signal for the concerted attack by the rest of the force. 
It rained heavily during the day, and, after a toilsome night- 
march, the force led by General Lee — wet, weary, hungry, and 
cold — gained their position close to and overlooking the 
enemy's encampment. In their march they had surprised 
and captured the picket, without a gun being fired, so that no 
notice had been given of their approach. 

The officer who had been sent to attack the work at Cheat 
Mountain Pass found, on closer examination, that he had 
been mistaken as to the practicability of taking it by assault, 
and that the heavy abatis which covered it was advanced 
beyond the range of his rifles. Not having understood that 
his firing was to be the signal for the general attack, and 
should therefore- be opened whether it would be effective or 
not, he withdrew without firing a musket. 



I08 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The height occupied by General Lee was shrouded in fog, 
and as morning had dawned without the expected signal, he 
concluded that some mishap had befallen the force which 
was to make it. By a tortuous path he went down the side 
of the mountain low enough to have a distinct view of the 
camp. He saw the men, unconscious of the near presence 
of an enemy, engaged in cleaning their arms, cooking, and 
other morning occupations; then, returning to his command, 
he explained to his senior ofificers what he had seen, and ex- 
pressed his belief that though the plan of attack had failed, 
the troops there with him could surprise and capture the 
camp. The officers withdrew, conferred with their men, and 
reported to the General that the troops were not, from expos- 
ure, in condition for the enterprise. As the fog was then lift- 
ing, and they would soon be revealed to the enemy below, 
whose numbers were vastly superior to his own, he withdrew 
his command and returned to his camp. 

The report that Rosecrans and Cox had united their com- 
mands and were advancing upon Wise and Floyd, caused 
General Lee to move at once to their support. He found 
General Floyd at Meadow Bluff, and General Wise at Sewell 
Mountain. The latter position being very favorable for de- 
fence, the troops were concentrated there to await the threat- 
ened attack by Rosecrans, who advanced and took position in 
sight of General Lee's intrenched camp, and, having remained 
there for more than a week, withdrew in the night without 
attempting the expected attack. 

The weak condition of his artillery horses and the bad 
state of the roads prevented General Lee from attempting to 
pursue ; and the approach of winter, always rigorous in that 
mountain region, closed the campaign with a small but brill- 
iant action in which General H. R. Jackson repelled an at- 
tack of a greatly superior force, inflicting severe loss on the 
assailants, and losing but six of his own command. 

After the withdrawal of the Confederate army from Fair- 
fax Court-House, a movement was made by the enemy to 
cross the Potomac near Leesburg, where we had four regi- 
ments of infantry, a small detachment of cavalry, and seven 
pieces of artillery, under the command of Brigadier-General 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. IO9 

N. S. Evans, of South Carolina, On the 21st of October 
the enemy commenced crossing the river at Edwards' Ferry. 
A brigade thrown over was met and held in check at the point 
of crossing. In the meantime another brigade was thrown 
over at Ball's Bluff, and as troops continued to cross there, 
where the Eighth Virginia had engaged them, General Evans 
ordered up the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Mississippi, and 
the three regiments made such an impetuous attack as to drive 
back the enemy to the Bluff. Colonel Baker, their leader, 
having fallen, a panic seemed to seize the command, so that 
they rushed headlong down the Bluff and crowded into the 
fiat-boats, which were their only means of transportation, in 
such numbers that they were sunk, and many of the foe were 
drowned in their attempt to swim across the river. The loss 
of the enemy, prisoners included, exceeded the number of our 
troops in the action. The Confederate loss was reported to 
be 36 killed, 117 wounded, and 2 captured; total, 155. 



no A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ARREST OF MASON AND SEIDELL 

It soon became evident to all that the South had gone to 
war without counting the cost. Our chief difficulty was the 
want of arms and munitions of war. Lamentable cries came to 
us from the West for the supplies which would enable patriotic 
citizens to defend their homes. The resources on which our 
people had relied — the private arms in the hands of citizens — 
had proved a sad delusion; and the Confederacy was not only 
deficient in ammunition but in the material for making it. 

Undue elation over our victory at Manassas was followed 
by dissatisfaction at what was termed the failure to reap the 
fruits of victory ; and rumors were circulated that the heroes 
of the hour were prevented from reaping the fruits of the 
victory by interference from the President. Naturally there 
followed another rumor, equally false, that the inaction of the 
victorious army was due to the policy of the President. Unjust 
criticisms based on these slanderous accusations weakened the 
power of the Government to meet its pending and provide for 
its coming necessities ; but I bore them in silence, lest to vindi- 
cate myself should injure the public service by turning public 
censure on the generals on whom the hopes of the country 
rested. That motive no longer exists, and it is due to the 
truth that I should record that no executive interference 
prevented active operations by the generals in command, and 
that neither the President nor any other civil officer was 
responsible for the dilatory execution of the law of Congress 
providing for a reorganization of the armies. 

In November, 1861, reports became current that the enemy 
was concentrating troops west of the valley of the Shenandoah 
with a view to a descent on it. Late in November General 
T. J. Jackson (better known as " Stonewall " Jackson) pro- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. Ill 

posed an expedition to Romney in order to frustrate this 
movement. 

The War Department adopted the proposition and strength- 
ened General Jackson's forces by transferring to his command 
his old brigade, then attached to the Army of the Potomac. 

After General Jackson began his march, the cold became 
unexpectedly severe ; and as he ascended into the mountain 
region the slopes were covered with ice, which impeded his 
progress the more because his horses were smooth-shod ; but 
his tenacity of purpose, fidelity, and daring triumphed over 
every obstacle, and he drove the enemy from Romney and its 
surroundings, took possession of the place, and prevented the 
threatened concentration. 

The development of the enemy's plans in Eastern Virginia 
showed that he had decided to move down the Potomac for 
a campaign against Richmond, from the Peninsula as a base. 
The principal portion of our army was consequently ordered 
to the Peninsula between the York River and the James. 
Thus the northern portion of Virginia, which in the first year 
of the war had been the main field for skirmishes, combats, and 
battles, of advance and retreat, and the occupation and evacua- 
tion of fortified positions, ceased for a time to tremble beneath 
the tread of contending armies. 

On the 8th of November, 1861, an outrage was perpetrated 
by an armed vessel of the United States in the forcible deten- 
tion on the high seas of a British mail-steamer, the Trent ^ mak- 
ing one of her regular trips from one British port to another, 
and the seizure, on that unarmed vessel, of the Confederate 
Commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who, accompanied by their 
secretaries, were bound for Europe on diplomatic service. The 
seizure was made by an armed force, against the protests of the 
captain of the vessel and of Commander Williams, R. N., the 
latter protesting as the representative of Her Majesty's Gov- 
ernment. The Commissioners yielded only when force which 
they could not resist was used to remove them from the 
mail-steamicr and carry them to the United States vessel- 
of-war. 

The outrage was the more marked because the United 
States had been foremost in resisting the ri^ht of "visit and 



112 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

search," and had made it the cause of the war of 1812 with 
Great Britain. 

The commissioners and their secretaries were transported 
to the harbor of Boston and imprisoned in its main fortress. 

The British Government demanded the immediate and 
unconditional release of the commissioners, " in order that they 
may again be placed under British protection," and a suitable 
apology for the aggression which had been committed. 

In the meantime Captain Wilkes, commander of the vessel 
which had made the visit and search of the Trent, returned to 
the United States and was received with general plaudits both 
by the people and the Government. The House of Repre- 
sentatives passed a vote of thanks. 

In the midst of this exultation came the demand for 
the restoration of the imprisoned commissioners to British 
protection. As it was little to be expected, after such explicit 
and general commendation of the act, that the Government 
of the United States would accede to the demand, the War 
and Navy Departments of the British Government made 
active and extensive preparations to enforce it. The haughty 
temper displayed toward the four gentlemen arrested on an 
unarmed ship subsided in view of a demand to be enforced 
by the army and navy of Great Britain, and the United States 
Secretary of State, after a wordy and ingenious reply to the 
British Minister at Washington, wrote : " The four persons in 
question . . . will be cheerfully liberated." There was a 
time when the Government and the people of the United 
States would not have sanctioned such aggression on the 
rights of friendly ships to pass unquestioned on the highway 
of nations and on the right of a neutral flag to protect every- 
thing not contraband of war ; but that was a time when arro- 
gance and duplicity had not led them into false positions, and 
when the roar of the British lion could not make Americans 
retract what they had deliberately avowed. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I13 



CHAPTER XV. 

OUR DEFICIENT ORDNANCE SUPPLIES. 

At the beginning of the war there were within the limits of 
the Confederacy 1 5,000 rifles and 120,000 muskets. There were 
at Richmond about 60,000 old flint-muskets, and at Baton 
Rouge about 10,000 old Hall's rifles and carbines. At Little 
Rock, Ark., there were a few thousand stands, and a few at the 
Texas arsenal ; increasing the aggregate of serviceable arms to 
about 143,000. Add to these the arms owned by the several 
States and by military organizations, and it would make a 
total of 150,000 for the use of the armies of the Confederacy. 
There were a few boxes of sabres at each arsenal, and some 
short artillery swords. A few hundred holster pistols were 
scattered about. There were no revolvers. 

Before the war little powder or ammunition of any kind 
was stored in the Southern States, and that little was a relic 
of the war with Mexico. It is doubtful if there were a mil- 
lion rounds of small-arm cartridges. The chief store of 
powder was that captured at Norfolk ; there was, besides, a 
small quantity at each of the Southern arsenals, in all, 60,000 
pounds, chiefly old cannon powder. The percussion-caps did 
not exceed one-quarter of a million; and there was no lead on 
hand. There were no batteries of serviceable field-artillery at 
the arsenals, but there were a few old iron guns mounted on 
Gribeauval carriages fabricated about 181 2. The States and 
the volunteer companies did, however, possess some service- 
able batteries. But there were neither harness, saddles, bridles, 
blankets, nor other artillery or cavalry equipments. 

To furnish 150,000 men, on both sides of the Mississippi, 
m May, 1861, there were no infantry accoutrements, no cav- 
alry arms or equipments, no artillery, and, above all, no ammu- 
nition ; nothing save small arms, and these almost wholly the 
8 



114 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

old pattern smooth-bore muskets, altered from flint locks to 
percussion. 

Within the limits of the Confederate States the arsenals 
had been used only as depots, and only one of them had a 
single machine above the grade of a foot-lathe. 

Except at Harper's Ferry Armory, all the work of prepa- 
ration of material had been carried on at the North ; not an 
arm, not a gun, not a gun-carriage, and, except during the 
Mexican War, scarcely a round of ammunition, had for fifty 
years been prepared in the Confederate States. There were 
consequently no workmen, or very few, skilled in those arts. 
Powder, save perhaps for blasting, had not been made at the 
South. No saltpetre was in store at any Southern point. It 
was stored wholly at the North. There were no worked 
mines of lead except in Virginia, and the situation of those 
made them a precarious dependence. The only cannon- 
foundry existing was at Richmond. Copper, so necessary for 
field artillery and for percussion-caps, was just being obtained 
in East Tennessee. There was no rolling-mill for bar-iron 
south of Richmond, and but few blast-furnaces, and these, 
with trifling exceptions, were in the border States of Virginia 
and Tennessee. 

The first efforts made to obtain powder were by orders 
sent to the North, which had been early done both by the 
Confederate Government and by some of the States. These 
were being rapidly filled when the attack was made on Fort 
Sumter. The shipments then ceased. Nitre was sought for 
in the caves of North Alabama and Tennessee. Between four 
and five hundred tons of sulphur were obtained in New 
Orleans, where it had been imported for use in the manufact- 
ure of sugar. Preparations for the construction of a large 
powder-mill were promptly commenced by the Government, 
and two small private mills in East Tennessee were supervised 
and improved. On June i, i86i, there were probably 250,000 I 
pounds, chiefly of cannon-powder, and about as much nitre, j 
which had been imported by Georgia. There were the two j 
powder-mills above mentioned, but we had had no experience '' 
in making powder, or in extracting nitre from natural de- 
posits, or in obtaining it from artificial beds. 



I 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. II5 

For the supply of arms an agent was sent to Europe, who 
made contracts to the extent of nearly half a million dollars. 
Some small-arms had been obtained from the North, and 
also important machinery. The machinery at Harper's Ferry 
Armory was partially saved from the flames by the heroic 
conduct of the operatives ; that for making rifle-muskets was 
transported to Richmond, and that for rifles with sword- 
bayonets to Fayetteville, N. C. In addition to the injuries 
suffered by the machinery, the lack of skilled workmen caused 
much embarrassment. In the meantime the manufacture of 
small-arms was undertaken at New Orleans, and prosecuted 
with energy, though with limited success. 

In field-artillery the manufacture was confined almost 
entirely to the Tredegar Works in Richmond. Some castings 
were made in New Orleans, and attention was turned to the 
manufacture of field and siege artillery at Nashville. A small 
foundry at Rome, Ga., was induced to undertake the casting 
of the 3-inch iron rifle, but the progress was very slow. 

The State of Virginia possessed a number of old 4-pounder 
iron guns, which were reamed out to get a good bore, and rifled 
with three grooves after the manner of Parrott. The army at 
Harper's Ferry and that at Manassas were supplied with old 
batteries of 6-pounder guns and 12-pounder howitzers. A few 
Parrott guns, purchased by the State of Virginia, were with 
General Magruder at Big Bethel. 

For the ammunition and equipment required for the infan- 
try and artillery, a good laboratory and workshop had been 
established at Richmond. The arsenals were making prepara- 
tions for furnishing ammunition and knapsacks; but generally 
what little was done in this regard was for local purposes. 

Such was the general condition of ordnance and ordnance 
supplies in May, 1861. 

But the progress of development was steady. A refinery 
of saltpetre was established near Nashville during the sum- 
mer, which received the nitre from that vicinity, and from the 
caves in East and Middle Tennessee. Some inferior powder 
was made at two small mills in South Carolina. North Car- 
olina established a mill near Raleigh. A stamping-mill was 
put up near New Orleans, and powder was made there be- 



Il6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

fore the fall of the city. Small quantities were also received 
through the blockade. It is estimated that, on the ist of 
January, 1862, there were 150 sea-coast guns, of various calibre, 
in position, from Evansport, on the Potomac, to Fort Brown, 
on the Rio Grande. If their calibre was averaged at thirty- 
two pounders, and the charge at five pounds, it would require, 
at 40 rounds per gun, 600,000 pounds of powder for them. 
The field artillery — say, 300 guns, with 200 rounds to the piece 
— would require 125,000 pounds ; and the small-arm cartridges 
— say ten million — would consume 125,000 pounds; making, 
in all, 850,000 pounds. Deducting 250,000 pounds, supposed 
to be on hand in various shapes, and the increment is 600,000 
pounds for the year 1861. Of this, perhaps 200,000 pounds 
had been made at the Tennessee and other mills, leaving 
400,000 pounds to be supplied through the blockade, or by 
purchase before the beginning of active hostilities. 

The impossibility of procuring powder that would not 
deteriorate in our climate, and the uncertainty of the supply, 
rendered it necessary for the Confederate Government to con- 
struct agreat powder-mill, which was soon accomplished, under 
the experience and skill of General G. W. Rains, of South 
Carolina; and thus this pressing problem was solved, and the 
Confederacy guaranteed not only a full supply of powder, but 
powder that would not deteriorate. All the machinery was 
made in the Confederate States. Contracts were made for 
the delivery of nitre through the blockade ; and to obtain 
it for immediate use we resorted to caves, cellars, tobacco- 
houses, etc. The supply thus obtained, however, was quite 
inadequate to our need. Lead was obtained from the Wythe- 
ville mines, and from the gleanings of the battle-field of Ma- 
nassas. By the close of 1861, eight arsenals and four depots 
had been supplied with materials and machinery, so as to be 
serviceable in producing the various munitions and equip- 
ments, the want of which had caused early embarrassment. 

The troops, however, were still very poorly armed and 
equipped. The old smooth-bore musket was the principal 
weapon of the infantry; the artillery had mostly the 6-pound 
gun, and the 12-pound howitzer; the cavalry were armed 
with such various arms as they could get — sabres, horse-pis- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. II7 

tols, revolvers, Sharpe's carbines, musketoons, short Enfield 
rifles, Hall's carbines, muskets cut off, etc. But, poor as the 
arms were, enough of them could not be obtained to arm the 
troops pressing forward to defend their homes and their polit- 
ical rights. 

In December, 1861, arms purchased abroad had come in, 
and a good many Enfield rifles were in the hands of the 
troops at the battle of Shiloh. The winter of 1862 was the 
period when our ordnance deficiencies were most keenly felt, 
and the equipments most needed were those we were the least 
able to supply. The abandonment of the line of the Potomac 
and the Upper Mississippi from Columbus to Memphis re- 
duced the pressure for heavy artillery; and, after the fall of 
1862, when the powder-mills at Augusta had got into full op- 
eration, there was no further inability to meet all requisitions 
for powder. 

On the recommendation of General Gorgas, a nitre and 
mining bureau was organized, charged with the duty of obtain- 
ing the material from which ammunition, arms, and equip- 
ments were to be manufactured. 

Under the able direction of Colonel St. John the bureau 
was soon aiding or managing some twenty to thirty furnaces, 
with a total annual yield of 50,000 tons or more of pig-iron ; 
lead and copper smelting-works were erected sufificient for all 
wants, and the smelting of zinc of good quality had been 
achieved. Nitre-beds were formed at Richmond, Columbus, 
Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Selma, and other points, and 
nitre was also obtained from caves and other like sources. In 
the course of a year the nitre production was brought up to 
something like half of the total consumption. The supervi- 
sion of the production of iron, lead, copper, and all the miner- 
als which needed development, as well as the manufacture of 
sulphuric and nitric acid (the latter required for the supply of 
the fulminate of mercury for percussion-caps), without which 
the fire-arms of our day would have been useless, was added 
to the other important duties of the bureau. 

In equipping the armies first sent into the field the supply 
of accessories was embarrassingly scant. There were arms, 
such as they were, for over one hundred thousand men, but 



Il8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

no accoutrements or equipments, and only a meagre supply of 
ammunition. In time, the knapsacks were supplanted by hav- 
ersacks, which the women could make. But soldiers' shoes 
and cartridge-boxes must be had ; leather was also needed for 
artillery-harness and for cavalry saddles ; and, as the amount 
of leather which the country could furnish was quite insuf- 
ficient for all these purposes, it was, perforce, apportioned 
among them. Soldiers' shoes were the prime necessity. 
Therefore a scale was established by which, first, shoes and 
then cartridge-boxes had the preference ; after these, artillery- 
harness, and then saddles and bridles. To economize leather, 
the waist and cartridge-box belts were made of prepared cot- 
ton cloth, stitched in three or four thicknesses. Bridle-reins 
were likewise so made, and then cartridge-boxes were thus 
covered except the flap. Saddle-skirts, too, were made of 
heavy cotton cloth strongly stitched. To get leather, each 
department procured its quota of hides, made contracts with 
the tanners, obtained hands for them by exemptions from the 
army, and got transportation over the railroads for the hides 
and for supplies. To the varied functions of this bureau was 
finally added that of assisting the tanners to procure the 
necessary supplies for the tanneries. A fishery, even, was 
established on Cape Fear River to get oil for mechanical pur- 
poses, and, at the same time, food for the workmen. In cav- 
alry equipments the main thing was to get a good saddle 
which would not hurt the back of the horse. For this pur- 
pose various patterns were tried, and reasonable success was 
obtained. One of the most difficult wants to supply in this 
branch of the service was the horseshoe for cavalry and artil- 
lery. The want of iron and of skilled labor was strongly felt. 
Every wayside blacksmith-shop accessible, especially those in 
and near the theatre of operations, was employed. These, 
again, had to be supplied with material, and the employees 
exempted from service. 

It early became manifest that great reliance must be placed 
on the introduction of articles of prime necessity through 
the blockaded ports. A vessel, capable of stowing six hun- 
dred and fifty bales of cotton, was purchased by the agent in 
England, and kept running between Bermuda and Wilming- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. II9 

ton. Some fifteen to eighteen trips were made before she 
was captured. Another was added, which was equally suc- 
cessful. These vessels were long, low, rather narrow, and 
built for speed. They were mostly of pale sky-color, and, 
with their lights out, and with fuel that made little smoke, 
they ran to and from Wilmington with considerable regularity. 
Several others were added, and devoted to bringing in ord- 
nance and, finally, general supplies. Depots of stores were 
likewise made at Nassau and Havana. Another organization 
was also necessary, that the vessels coming in through the 
blockade might have their return cargoes promptly on their 
arrival. These resources were also supplemented by contracts 
for supplies brought through Texas from Mexico. 

The arsenal in Richmond soon grew to very large di- 
mensions, and, except cannon and small-arms, produced all 
the ordnance stores that the army required, in quantities suf- 
ficient to supply the forces in the field. The arsenal at Au- 
gusta was very advantageous to the armies serving in the 
South and West, and furnished for them much field-artillery 
complete. The Government powder-mills were entirely suc- 
cessful. The arsenal and workshops at Charleston were en- 
larged, steam was introduced, and good work done in various 
departments. The arsenal at Mount Vernon, Ala., was moved 
to Selma in that State, where it grew into a large and well- 
ordered establishment of the first class. 

The chief armories were at Richmond, and Fayetteville, 
N. C. The Richmond armory turned out about 1,500 stand 
per month ; the Fayetteville armory, owing to the want of op- 
eratives, only 400 per month. 

Factories for Sharpe's carbines and rifle-carbines were es- 
tablished at Richmond, Asheville, and Tallahassee. A great 
part of the work of these factories consisted in the repair of 
arms. In this way the gleanings of the battle-field were util- 
ized. Nearly 10,000 stand were saved from the field of Ma- 
nassas, and from those about Richmond, in 1862, we obtained 
about 25,000 excellent arms. 

All the stock of inferior arms disappeared from the armor- 
ies during the first two years of the war, and were replaced by 
a better class of arms, rifled and percussioned. Placing the 



I20 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

good arms lost previous to July, 1863, at 100,000, there must 
have been received, from various sources, 400,000 stand of 
infantry arms in the first two years of the war. 

" We began, in April, 1861," truly writes General Gorgas, 
" without an arsenal, laboratory, or powder-mill of any capac- 
ity, and with no foundry or rolling-mill, except in Richmond ; 
and before the close of 1863 — or within a little over two 
years — we supplied them. During the harassments of war, 
while holding our own in the field, defiantly and successfully, 
against a powerful enemy; crippled by a depreciated cur- 
rency ; cramped by a blockade that deprived us of nearly all 
the means of getting material or workmen ; obliged to send 
almost every able-bodied man to the field ; unable to use the 
slave-labor with which we were abundantly supplied, except 
in the most unskilful departments of production ; hampered 
by want of transportation even of the commonest supply of 
food ; with no stock on hand, even of articles such as steel, 
copper, leather, iron, which we must have to build up our es- 
tablishments — against all these obstacles, in spite of all these 
■deficiencies, we persevered at home, as determinedly as did 
our troops in the field against a more inspiring opposition ; 
and, in that short period, created, almost literally out of the 
ground, foundries and rolling-mills at Selma, Richmond, 
Atlanta, and Macon; smelting works at Petersburg; chem- 
ical works at Charlotte, N. C. ; a powder-mill far superior to 
any in the United States, and unsurpassed by any across the 
ocean; and a chain of arsenals, armories, and laboratories 
equal in their capacity and their approved appointments to 
the best of those in the United States, stretching, link by link, 
from Virginia to Alabama." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 121 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CONFEDERATE FINANCIAL SYSTEM. 

The Confederate Government began its existence not 
only without the munitions of war, but without a treasury ; 
and, thus defenceless against hostile movements, in less than 
two months was called on to defend its territory from inva- 
sion on every side by an implacable and well-equipped enemy. 
Its ways and means consisted of loans and taxes ; and to these 
it resorted. The financial system thus adopted from neces- 
sity proved adequate, during the early part of the war, to 
supply all the wants of the Government and people ; so that, 
notwithstanding an unexpected and very large increase of 
expenditure had resulted from the great enlargement of the 
necessary means of defence, the Government entered on its 
second year without a floating debt and with its credit unim- 
paired. The total expenditure of the first year, ending Feb- 
ruary I, 1862, amounted to $170,000,000. From the organiza- 
tion of the Government to August i, 1862 — the first eighteen 
months of the Confederacy — the total expenditure amounted 
to $328,748,830.70, of which, in round numbers, $298,000,000 
were expended for the army and $14,600,000 for the navy. 
The total receipts were $302,503,096.60. Received from cus- 
toms, about a million and a half; war tax, $10,539,910.70; 
bonds (February, 1886), $15,000,000; bonds (August), $22,- 
600,000; call certificates, $37,515,200; Treasury and demand 
notes, $209,930,000; and one and two dollar notes, $846,900; 
bank loans, $2,645,000. 

A brief review of the legislation of the Confederate Con- 
gress will clearly present the financial system of the Govern- 
ment. The first action of the Provisional Congress was con- 
fined to the adoption of a tariff law and an act authorizing 
a loan of fifteen million dollars, with the pledge of a small 



122 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

export duty on cotton to provide for the redemption of the 
debt. . At the next session, after the commencement of the 
war, provision was made for the issue of twenty million dol- 
lars in Treasury notes, and for borrowing thirty million dollars 
in bonds. At the same time the tax was revised, and prepar- 
atory measures were taken for the levy of internal taxes. After 
the purpose of subjugation became manifest by the action of 
the Federal Congress, early in July, 1861, and the certainty of 
a long war was demonstrated, there arose the necessity that a 
financial system should be devised on a basis sufficiently large 
for the vast proportions of the approaching contest. The 
plan then adopted was founded on the theory of issuing Treas- 
ury notes, convertible, at the pleasure of the holder, into eight 
per cent bonds, with the interest payable in coin. It was as- 
sumed that any tendency to depreciation which might arise 
from the over-issue of the currency would be checked by the 
constant exercise of the holders' right to fund the notes at a 
liberal interest payable in specie. The success of this system 
depended on the ability of the Government constantly to pay 
the interest in specie. The measures, therefore, adopted to 
secure that payment consisted in the levy of an internal tax 
and the appropriation of the revenue from imports. 

The first operation of the plan was quite successful. The 
interest was paid from the revenue of coin existing in the 
country, and experience sustained the expectations of those 
who devised the system. Wheat and other agricultural prod- 
ucts were selling, in the beginning of 1862, at very moderate 
prices — little exceeding the average price in times of peace, 
while the premium on coin had reached about twenty per 
cent. 

But, when it became evident that, by the policy of neutral 
nations in treating our invasion by a special agent having only 
delegated powers as though it were the attempt of a sovereign 
to suppress a rebellion against lawful authority, the gommerce 
of our country was threatened with permanent suspension, the 
premium on specie rose, because the situation indicated the 
coming exhaustion of our reserve without the possibility of 
renewing the supply. 

The measures adopted to promote voluntary funding, in 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 123 

order to decrease the volume of notes in circulation, were but 
partially successful. In December, 1863, the currency in cir- 
culation amounted to over $6oo,ooo,cx)0, or more than three- 
fold the amount required by the business of the country. The 
evils of this financial condition soon became apparent in a 
constant increase of prices, in stimulating the spirit of specula- 
tion, and in discouraging legitimate commerce. 

I therefore recommended to Congress (in December, 1863) 
the compulsory reduction of the currency to the volume re- 
quired to carry on the business of the country, to be accom- 
panied by a pledge that in no strain of circumstances would 
the amount be increased. 

The recommendation was incorporated in the act of Feb- 
ruary, 1864 ; one of the features of which was a tax levied on 
the circulation. After the law had been in operation for one 
year, it was manifest that it had produced the desired effect 
of withdrawing from circulation the large excess of Treasury 
notes which had been issued. On July i, 1864, the outstanding 
amount was estimated at $230,000,000. The estimate of the 
amount funded under the act about this time was $300,000,000, 
while new notes were authorized to be issued to the extent of 
two-thirds the sum received under its provisions. 

The chief difificulty apprehended in connection with our 
finances up to the close of the war resulted from the deprecia- 
tion of our Treasury notes, the inevitable consequence of their 
increasing redundancy and the diminishing confidence in their 
ultimate redemption. 



124 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XVII. 

REFORMS IN THE MILITARY LEGISLATION, 

During the first year of the war the authority granted to 
the President to call for volunteers in the army for a short 
period was sufficient to secure all the military force we could 
equip and use advantageously. As it became evident that the 
contest would be long and severe, better measures of prepara- 
tion were enacted. I was authorized to call out and enroll in 
the military service, for three years, unless the war should sooner 
end, all white men, residents of the Confederate States, be- 
tween the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years, and to continue 
those already in the field until three years from the date of their 
enlistment. Those under eighteen and over thirty-five were 
required to remain ninety days. The terms of service being 
lengthened, the changes by discharge and by receiving recruits 
were diminished, so that, while additions were made to the 
forces already in the field, the discipline was greatly improved. 

At the same time, on March 13, 1862, General Robert E. 
Lee was "charged with the conduct of the military operations 
of the armies of the Confederacy," under my direction. 

The good effects of these measures were soon seen in the 
increased strength and efficiency of our armies. On Septem- 
ber 27, 1862, all white men between the ages of thirty-five and 
forty-five were placed in the military service for three years. 
On February 11, 1864, it was enacted that all white men be- 
tween the ages of eighteen and forty-five should be in the 
military service for the war, and that all then in service, of the 
same age and class, should be retained during the war. On 
February 17th all male free negroes between the ages of eigh- 
teen and fifty years were made liable to perform duties with 
the army, or in connection with the defensive and manufac- 
turing works, or the hospital departments. The Secretary of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 25 

War was also authorized to employ, for the same duties, any 
number of negro slaves not exceeding 20,000. The exemptions 
hitherto accorded by law to persons engaged in specified pur- 
suits and professions were also abandoned. 

The act authorizing the employment of slaves produced 
less important results than were anticipated, but it brought 
to the front the question of the employment of negroes as 
soldiers, which was ardently advocated by some and as zeal- 
ously opposed by others. 

Subsequent events convinced me of the expediency of en- 
rolling negroes as soldiers, and I urged that policy with mem- 
bers of Congress when they called, on me. General Lee was 
summoned before a Congressional Committee to give his 
opinion of the probable efficiency of negroes as soldiers. Con- 
trary, as it is believed, to the expectations of those who called 
him. General Lee gave his unqualified adherence to the pro- 
posed measure. 

After much discussion a bill passed the House of Rep- 
resentatives authorizing the President to accept from their 
owners such a number of negroes as he might deem expedi- 
ent ; but the bill failed to become a law, by a single vote, in 
the Confederate Senate. The Virginia senators strongly op- 
posed it. The Virginia Legislature thereupon instructed them 
to vote for it, and they so voted. Finally the bill passed, 
with an amendment that not more than twenty-five per cent 
of the male slaves between the ages of eighteen and forty-five 
should be called out. But ere the law was thus enacted the 
opportunity had passed. It came too late. 



126 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

FEDERAL HOSTILITIES AND USURPATIONS. 

Before entering on the narrative of those terrible scenes 
of wrong and blood, in which the Government of the United 
States, driven to desperation by our successful resistance to 
its outrages, broke through every restraint of the Constitution, 
of national law, of justice, and of humanity, it is proper that 
we should sum up the hostile acts and usurpations committed 
during the first year. 

Our people had been declared to be combinations of 
insurrectionists, and more than 150,000 men had been called 
to arms to invade our territory. Our forts were blockaded 
for the destruction of our regular commerce. We had been 
threatened with denunciation as pirates if we rnolested a ves- 
sel of the United States, and some of our citizens had been 
confined in cells to await the punishment of piracy. One of 
our States was rent asunder, and a new State constructed out 
of one of the fragments. Every proposition for a peaceful so- 
lution of pending issues had been spurned. An inhuman war- 
fare had been waged against our peaceful citizens ; their dwell- 
ings had been burned, and their crops destroyed. A law had 
been passed imposing a penalty of forfeiture on the owner of 
any faithful slave who gave military and naval service to the 
Confederacy, and forbidding military commanders to inter- 
fere for the restoration of fugitives. The United States Gov- 
ernment had refused to agree to an exchange of prisoners, and 
suffered those we had captured to languish in captivity. They 
had maligned us in every court in Europe to defeat our efforts 
to obtain a recognition from foreign poAvers. The Federal 
Government had seized a portion of the members of the Leg- 
islature of one State and confined them in a distant military 
prison, merely because they were thought to sympathize with 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 12/ 

US, although they had not committed any overt act. It had 
refused all the propositions of another State for a peaceful 
neutrality, invaded her soil, and seized important positions 
where not even a disturbance of the peace had occurred, and 
perpetrated the most horrible outrages on her people. It had 
rejected the most conciliatory terms offered for the sake of 
peace by the Governor of another State, and claimed for it- 
self an unrestricted right to move and station its troops when- 
ever and wherever its officers might think it to be desirable ; 
and it persisted in its aggressions until the people were involved 
in conflicts, and a provisional government became necessary 
for their protection. 

Within the Northern States, which professed to be strug- 
gling to maintain the Union, the Constitution, its only bond, 
and the laws made in pursuance of it, were in peaceful, undis- 
puted existence ; yet even there the Government ruled with 
a tyrant's hand, and the provisions for the freedom of speech, 
freedom of the press, and the personal liberty of the citizen 
were daily violated, and these sacred rights of man suppressed 
by military force. 

The extent of armed resistance on our part the people of 
the North were slow to comprehend. They would not realize 
that their purpose of subjugation would be so resolutely re- 
sisted, or that, if persisted in, it must be carried to the extent 
of bloodshed in sectional war. With them the lust of domin- 
ion was stronger than the sense of justice, or of the fraternity 
of equal rights of the States, which the Union was formed to 
secure. They were blind, therefore, to palpable results. The 
division of sentiment in the South on the question of the ex- 
pediency of immediate secession was mistaken for the exist- 
ence of a submission party ; whereas the division was confined 
to expediency, and wholly disappeared when our territory was 
invaded. Then was revealed to all the necessity of defending 
their homes and. liberties against the ruthless assault on both, 
and then extraordinary unanimity prevailed. Then, as Ham- 
ilton and Madison had foreseen, war against the States had 
effected the deprecated dissolution of the Union. 

The policy of subjugation, adopted without provocation, 
was pressed with a ferocity that disregarded all the laws of 



128 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

civilized warfare. The Government waged war not only with 
those who bore arms, but with the entire population of the 
Confederate States. Private houses in isolated retreats were 
bombarded and burned ; grain crops in the field were con- 
sumed by the torch ; and, when the torch was not applied, 
careful labor was bestowed to render complete the destruction 
of every article of use or ornament remaining in the private 
dwellings after their female inhabitants had fled from the 
insults of brutal soldiers. A petty war was made on the sick, 
including women and children, by carefully devised measures 
to prevent them from obtaining the necessary medicines. 
Were these the appropriate means by which to execute the 
law and preserve a voluntary union ? Was this a government 
resting on the consent of the governed ? 

We could not compensate for our lack of a navy by the 
usual resort to privateers, as the common incentive to such 
ventures, the hope of gain, was lacking, from the fact that all 
foreign ports were closed against our prizes and our own ports 
blockaded. Nevertheless, as the only alternatives thus left 
in the circumstances were the burning or bonding of captures, 
the Confederate Government received applications for letters 
of marque, and issued them, and there was soon a little fleet 
afloat composed partly of vessels for which letters of marque 
had been issued, and partly of vessels that had been bought 
and fitted out by the Navy Department. They hovered on 
the coast of the Northern States, capturing and destroying 
their vessels and filling the enemy with consternation. The 
President of the United States had declared, by proclamation 
dated April 19th, 1861, that any person who under the pre- 
tended authority of the said (Confederate) States should molest 
a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo aboard, 
"should be held amenable to the laws of the United States 
for the crime of piracy." Happily for the United States the 
threat was not executed ; but the failure to carry out the de- 
clared purpose was coupled with humiliation, because it was 
the result of a notice to retaliate as fully as there might need 
be, to stop such a barbarous practice. 

On June 3, 1861, the little schooner Savannah, an old 
pilot-boat, sailing under a Confederate commission, was cap- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 29 

tured by the United States brig Perry. The crew were placed 
in irons and sent to New York. As soon as it was ascer- 
tained in Richmond that they were not treated as prisoners 
of war, I addressed a letter to President Lincoln, dated July 
6th, in which it was explicitly stated that, " Painful as will be 
the necessity, this Government will deal out to the prisoners 
held by it the same treatment and the same fate as shall 
be experienced by those captured on the Savannali ; and if 
driven to the terrible necessity of retaliation by your execution 
of any of the officers or crew of the Savannah^ that retaliation 
will be extended so far as shall be requisite to secure the 
abandonment of a practice unknown to the warfare of civ- 
ilized man, and so barbarous as to disgrace the nation which 
shall be guilty of inaugurating it." Still later in the year the 
privateer Jeffersoji Davis was captured, the captain and crew 
were brought into Philadelphia, and the captain was tried, 
found guilty of piracy, and threatened with death. Imme- 
diately I instructed General Winder, at Richmond, to select 
one Federal prisoner of the highest rank, to be confined in a 
cell appropriate to convicted felons, and treated in all respects 
as if convicted, and to be held for execution in the same 
manner as might be adopted for the execution of the prisoner 
of war in Philadelphia. He was further instructed to select 
thirteen other prisoners, of the highest rank, to be held in 
the same manner as hostages for the thirteen prisoners held in 
New York for trial as pirates. By this course the infamous 
attempt made by the United States Government to inflict ju- 
dicial murder was arrested. 

The appearance of this little fleet on the ocean made it 
necessary for the powers of Europe to define their position in 
relation to the contending powers. Great Britain, adopting a 
position of neutrality and recognizing both as belligerents, in- 
terdicted the armed ships and privateers of both from carrying 
prizes into the waters of the United Kingdom or its colonies. 
All the other powers also recognized the Confederate States 
to be belligerent, and closed their ports against the admission 
of prizes captured by either belligerent. 

Up to the close of 1861 the war enlarged its proportions 
so as to include new fields, until it then extended from the 




I30 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

shores of the Chesapeake to the boundaries of Missouri and 
Arizona. Sudden calls from the remotest points for military- 
aid were met with promptness enough not only to arrest dis- 
aster in the face of superior numbers, but to roll back the tide 
of invasion on the border. 

At the beginning of the war the enemy were possessed of 
certain strategic points and strong places within the Confed- 
erate States. They greatly exceeded us in numbers, in avail- 
able resources, and in the supplies of war. Their military 
establishments had been long organized and were complete ; 
the army and navy, once common to both, were in their ex- 
clusive possession. To meet all this we had to create not only 
an army in the face of war itself, but also the military estab- 
lishment necessary to equip it and place it in the field. The 
spirit of the volunteers and the patriotism of the people en- 
abled us, under Providence, to grapple successfully with these 
difficulties. A succession of glorious victories at Bethel, Ma- 
nassas, Springfield, Lexington, Leesburg, and Belmont checked 
the invasion of our soil. After seven months of war the enemy 
had not only failed to extend their occupancy of the soil, but 
new States and Territories had been added to our Confederacy. 
Instead of their threatened march of unchecked conquest, the 
enemy were driven, at more than one point, to assume the 
defensive, and the Confederate States were relatively much 
stronger at the end of the year than when the struggle began. 

The necessities of the times called into existence new 
branches of manufacture and stimulated the activity of those 
previously in operation ; and gradually we were becoming in- 
dependent of the rest of the world for the supply of such mil- 
itary stores and munitions as were indispensable for war. 

At an election on November 6, 1861, the chief executive 
officers of the Provisional Government were unanimously 
chosen to similar positions in the permanent Government to 
be inaugurated on the ensuing 22d of February, 1862. 



^ 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 131 



CHAPTER XIX. 

FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON SURRENDERED. 

Important changes were made about this time in the mil- 
itary arrangements of the enemy. General Scott was retired, 
and General McClellan was assigned to the chief command 
of the Federal army. General Halleck superseded General 
Fremont in command of the Department of the West. The 
States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky, east of the 
Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, were constituted into the 
Department of the Ohio, and General Buell was assigned to 
its command. General W. T. Sherman was ordered to report 
to General Flalleck. 

General A. S. Johnston was now confronted by General 
Halleck in the West, and by General Buell in Kentucky. 
Halleck, with armies at Cairo and Paducah under Generals 
Grant and C. F. Smith, threatened equally Columbus, the 
bay of the Lower Mississippi River, and the water-lines of the 
Cumberland and the Tennessee, with other defences at Fort 
Donelson and Henry ; while his centre was directed against 
General Zollicoffer, at Mill Spring, on the Upper Cumberland. 
At the northeast corner of Kentucky there was a force under 
Colonel (afterward President) Garfield of Ohio, opposed to 
the Confederate force under General Humphrey Marshall. 

The strength of Marshall's force was about 1,600 effective 
men. Knowing that Colonel Garfield was advancing to meet 
him, and that a small force was moving to his rear, he fell back 
some fifteen miles and took position on Middle Creek, near 
Prestonburg. On January 10, 1862, Garfield attacked him. 
The firing was kept up, with some intervals, about four hours, 
and was occasionally very spirited. Marshall reported : " The 
enemy came up to attack, yet came so cautiously that my left 
wing never fired a shot, and he never came up sufficiently to 



132 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

engage my centre or left wing. Garfield was said to have 
fallen back fifteen miles to Paintsville, and Marshall seven 
miles, where he remained two days, and then slowly pursued 
his retreat." 

At Mill Springs, on the upper waters of the Cumberland, 
a small but gallant army had been collected for the defence of 
the mountains. This force was under the command of Gen- 
eral Crittenden, who had recently joined General Zollicoffer. 

On the 1 8th it was decided to attack General Thomas, who 
was marching on the Confederate position, before he should 
be reinforced by a brigade which was moving to unite with 
him. The enemy were attacked at Fishing Creek early in 
the morning, and the battle raged fiercely. The action was 
progressing successfully, when the news of the death of Gen- 
eral Zollicoffer, commanding the advance, threw the line of 
battle into confusion and made a retreat unavoidable, despite 
the gallant efforts of General Crittenden to rally his men. 

The enemy did not follow up by a vigorous pursuit the ad- 
vantage he had gained. He halted in front of the Confeder- 
ate intrenchments. As General Crittenden was without sup- 
plies, and therefore could not hold the position, he successfully, 
during the night, moved his men across the Cumberland 
River, but had not the transportation to save his camp equi- 
page, baggage, horses, wagons, or artillery, which had to be 
abandoned. 

Although not specially memorable for the number of its 
killed and wounded, this battle was the most serious defeat 
that we had hitherto met. It broke the right of our defensive 
line and involved the loss of Eastern Kentucky. Yet the 
strategy and heroism displayed entitles the affair to be ranked 
as one of the most brilliant conceptions and most heroic inci- 
dents of the war. 

When Tennessee seceded, measures Avere immediately 
adopted to occupy and fortify all the strong strategic points 
on the Mississippi, such as Memphis and Randolph, Fort 
Pillow and Island Number Ten. As it was not our purpose 
to enter Kentucky, these defensive works were located within 
the boundaries of Tennessee, and as near the Kentucky line as 
suitable sites could be found. On these were begun the con- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 133 

struction of Fort Donelson, on the west side of the Cumber- 
land, and Fort Henry on the east side of the Tennessee, and 
about twelve miles apart. 

Fort Henry stood on the low lands adjacent to the river, 
about high-water mark, and being just below a bend of the 
river, and at the head of a straight stretch of two miles, it 
commanded the river for that distance. It was also com- 
manded by high ground on the opposite bank of the river, 
which it was intended should be occupied by our troops in 
case of a land attack. The power of iron-clad gunboats 
against land defences had not yet been shown, and the low 
position of the fort brought the battery to the water level and 
secured the advantage of ricochet firing, the most effective 
against wooden ships. 

Fort Donelson was placed on high ground, and with the 
plunging fire of its batteries was thereby more effective 
against the ironclads brought to attack it on the water side. 
But on the land side it required extensive outworks and a 
considerable force to resist an attack in that quarter. 

General Polk, just before the battle of Shiloh, reported to 
General Johnston that the principal difficulty in the way of a 
successful defence of the river was the want of an adequate 
force of infantry and of experienced artillerists. This tells 
only half of the story. To match the vessels of the enemy — 
floating forts — we needed vessels like theirs, or the means of 
constructing them. We had neither. 

The efforts put forth to resist the operations on the West- 
ern rivers, for which the United States made such vast prep- 
arations, were, therefore, necessarily very limited. There 
was a lack of skilled labor, of ship-yards, and of materials for 
constructing ironclads, which could not be readily obtained 
or prepared in a beset and blockaded countiy. Proposals 
were considered both for building gunboats, and for convert- 
ing the ordinary side-wheel, high-pressure steamboats into 
gunboats. The Engineer Department decided that it was not 
feasible. There was not plate iron with which to armor a 
single vessel ; and even railroad iron could not be spared from 
its uses for transportation. Unless a fleet could have been 
built to match the enemy's, we had to rely on land batteries, 



134 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

torpedoes, and marching forces. It was thought best to con- 
centrate the resources on what seemed practicable. One iron- 
clad gunboat, however, the Eastport, was undertaken on the 
Tennessee River, but under so many difficulties that, after 
the surrender of Fort Henry, while still unfinished, it was de- 
stroyed lest it should fall into the hands of the enemy. 

The fleet of gunboats prepared by the United States for 
the Mississippi and' its tributaries consisted of twelve, seven 
of which were iron-clad, and able to resist all except the 
heaviest solid shot. Their unusual breadth gave them, in the 
smooth river waters, the steadiness of land batteries when dis- 
charging their heavy guns. This flotilla carried 142 guns — 
some 64-pounders, some 32-pounders, and some French rifled 
guns carrying 8-pound shells. 

On Februaiy 2d General Grant started for Cairo with 
17,000 men on transports, accompanied by Commodore Foote 
with seven gunboats. On the 4th the landing of the troops 
commenced three or four miles below Fort Henry. General 
Grant took command on the east bank, with the main column, 
while General Charles F. Smith, with some 5,000 or 6,000 
men, landed on the left bank, with orders to take the earth- 
work known as Fort Hindman, opposite Fort Henry. Gen- 
eral Tilghman held Fort Henry with 3,400 men. On the 6th, 
before the attack by the gunboats, he abandoned his purpose 
to dispute Grant's advance by land, and, regarding a success- 
ful defence as hopeless, made arrangements for the escape of 
his main body to Fort Donelson, while he, by heroic devotion, 
would insure the delay necessary for the movement by use of 
the battery, and by standing a bombardment in Fort Henry. 
For this purpose he retained seventy-five men to work the 
guns, a number unequal to the strain of labor of the defence. 

Noon was fixed as the hour of the attack ; but Grant, im- 
peded by the overflow of water, and unwilling to expose his 
men to the heavy guns of the fort, held them back to await the 
result of the gunboat attack. In the meantime the Confed- 
erate troops were in retreat. Four ironclads, mounting 48 
heavy guns, approached, firing as they advanced, and took po- 
sition within 600 yards of the fort. About half a mile behind 
these came three unarmored vessels, mounting 27 heavy guns, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I35 

which kept up a bombardment of shells, which fell within the 
fort. Some 400 of the formidable missiles of the iron-clad 
boats were also thrown into the fort. This bombardment was 
rapidly responded to, and no fewer than 59 shots were seen to 
strike the gunboats, some of them inflicting serious damage. 

Five minutes after the fight began the 24-pounder rifled 
gun, one of the most formidable in the fort, burst, disabling 
every man at the piece. Then a shell exploded at the muz- 
zle of one of the 32-pounders, ruining the gun, and killing or 
wounding all the men who served it. About the same mo- 
ment a premature discharge occurred at one of the 42-pounder 
guns, killing three men and dangerously wounding several 
others. The ten-inch columbiad, the only gun able to match 
the artillery of the enemy, was next rendered useless by an 
accident. 

The men became exhausted and lost confidence, and Tilgh- 
man, seeing this, in person served a 32-pounder for fifteen 
minutes. Though but four of his guns were disabled, six 
stood idle for want of artillerists, and but two were replying 
to the enemy. After an engagement of two hours and ten 
minutes he ceased firing and lowered his flag. Our casualties 
were 5 killed and 16 wounded; those of the enemy were 63 
of all kinds. Twelve ofiicers and 63 non-commissioned offi- 
cers and privates were surrendered with the fort. The Ten- 
nessee River was thus open, and a base by short lines was 
established against Fort Donelson. 

The next movement was a combined attack, by land and 
water, upon Fort Donelson, The fort consisted of two water 
batteries on the hillside, protected by a bastioned earthwork 
of irregular outline on the summit, inclosing about 100 acres. 
The water batteries were admirably placed to sweep the river 
approaches, with an armament of 13 guns — 8 32-pounders, 3 
32-pound carronades, i lo-inch columbiad, and i rifled gun 
of 32-pound calibre. The field-work, which was intended for 
infantry supports, occupied a plateau about one hundred feet 
above the river, commanding and protecting the water bat- 
teries at close musket-range. These works afforded a fair de- 
fence against gunboats ; but they were not designed or adapt- 
ed for resistance to a land attack or investment by an enemy. 



136 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The Confederate forces under Generals Floyd, Pillow, and 
Buckner, in Fort Donelson, during the siege, numbered be- 
tween 14,500 and 15,000 men. On February 13th, the fire of 
the enemy's artillery was incessant throughout the day, but was 
responded to by a well-directed fire from the intrenchments, 
which inflicted a considerable loss on the assailants, and almost 
silenced their fire in the afternoon. The artillery fire was con- 
tinued at intervals during the night. Nearly every Confed- 
erate regiment reported a few casualties from shot and shell, 
which fell frequently within the works. Meanwhile a gun- 
boat of 13 guns arrived in the morning, and, taking a position 
behind a headland, fired 138 shots, when a shot from our one 
128-pounder crashed through one of her ports, injuring her 
machinery and crippling her. The enemy's fire did not dam- 
age the fort. 

The weather became cold during the night, and a driving 
snow-storm prevailed, so that some of the soldiers were frozen, 
and the wounded between the lines suffered extremely. The 
fleet of gunboats under Commodore Foote arrived with 
reinforcements to the enemy. They were landed and put in 
position, but no assault was made, although a rambling and 
ineffectual fire was kept up. About three o'clock in the 
afternoon the commander of the naval force brought his four 
ironclads, followed by two gunboats, up to the attack. He 
expected an easy victory, like that at Fort Henry. Each of 
the ironclads mounted thirteen guns, and the gunboats nine. 
Any one of them was more than a match for the guns of the 
forts. Their guns were 8-, 9-, and lo-inch — three in the bow 
of each. One columbiad and the rifled gun were our only 
two pieces effective against the ironclads. The enemy moved 
directly against the water battery, firing with great weight of 
metal. It was Commodore Foote's intention to silence these 
batteries, pass them, and enfilade the fort with broadsides. 
The shot and shell of the fleet tore. up the earthwork, but did 
no further injury. But the Confederate guns, aimed from an 
elevation of not less than thirty feet, by cool and courageous 
hands, sent their shot with destructive power, and overcame 
all the enemy's advantages in number and weight of guns. 
The bolts of our two heavy guns went crashing through iron 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 13/ 

and massive timbers with resistless force, scattering slaughter 
and destruction through the fleet. 

According to the report of the enemy, the four ironclads 
received no less than one hundred and forty-two wounds. 
" The fleet, therefore," it is added, " gathering itself together 
and rendering mutual help to its disabled members, proceeded 
to Cairo to repair damages." 54 men were killed or wounded. 

Major Gilmer, who laid out the works, reported : " Our 
batteries were uninjured, and not a man in them killed. The 
repulse of the gunboats closed the operations of the day, except 
a few scattering shots along the land defences." 

A conference of the Confederate Generals at midnight 
determined the operations for the next day. The enemy had 
been largely reinforced, and the great disproportion in numbers 
that had marked the opening of the struggle for Fort Donelson 
was hourly increasing to our disadvantage. It was determined 
that the whole of the left wing of the army, except eight reg- 
iments, should move out of the trenches, attack, turn, and drive 
the enemy's right, until the Wynn's Ferry road, which led to 
Charlotte through a good country, was cleared, and an exit 
thus secured. Moving in the small hours of the night, pver 
icy and broken roads, which wound through the obstructed 
area of defence, our troops made slow progress, and delayed 
the projected operations. At four o'clock in the morning 
Pillow's troops were ready ; two hours later the bloody contest 
of the day had begun. At one o'clock the enemy's right was 
doubled back and the Wynn's Ferry road cleared. 

The conflict on the left soon ended; 300 prisoners, 5,000 
stand of small arms, 6 guns, and other spoils of victory had 
oeen won by our forces. But the enemy, cautiously advancing, 
gradually recovered most of his lost ground. It was about 
4 P.M. when the assault on the right was made by General C. 
F. Smith. The enemy succeeded in carrying the advanced 
work, which General Buckner considered the key to his 
position. 

The loss of the enemy during the siege was 400 killed, 
1,785 wounded, and 300 prisoners. Our losses were about 
325 killed, 1,097 wounded ; including missing, they were esti- 
mated at 1,500. 



138 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

After nightfall, at a conference of the commanding ofificers, 
it was decided that a surrender was inevitable, and that to 
accomplish its objects it must be made before the assault, which 
was expected at daylight. 

General Buckner wrote : " I regarded the position of the 
army as desperate, and that the attempt to extricate it by 
another battle, in the suffering and exhausted condition of the 
troops, was almost hopeless. The troops had been worn down 
with watching, with labor, with fighting. Many of them were 
frosted by the cold ; all of them were suffering and exhausted 
by their incessant labors. There had been no regular issue of 
rations for several days, and scarcely any means of cooking. 
The ammunition was nearly expended. We were completely 
invested by a force fully four times the strength of our own." 

The decision to surrender having been made, it was allotted 
to General Buckner, who opened negotiations with General 
Grant, and surrendered the Fort on the following morning. 
Only two roads were open to the retreat of the garrison. By 
the upper road they would have been forced to cut through 
the main body of the enemy, which, it was estim.ated, would 
have involved the loss of three-fourths of the command ; while 
a retreat by the lower road would have compelled the retreat- 
ing force to wade through water three feet deep, which, on 
account of their physical exhaustion and the severity of the 
weather, would have been death to half of the command in the 
opinion of the medical director. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 39 



CHAPTER XX. 

TRANS-MISSISSIPPI MILITARY OPERATIONS. 

The loss of Forts Donelson and Henry, opening the river 
routes to Nashville and Alabama, and turning the positions at 
Bowling Green and Columbus, rendered it expedient to re- 
move our army to Nashville, in rear of the Cumberland River, 
a strong point some miles below that city being fortified to 
defend the river against the passage of gunboats and trans- 
ports. The retreat was made as soon as it was determined 
that Fort Donelson was untenable. Hardly had the retreat 
to Nashville been accomplished than the news of the fall of 
Fort Donelson was received. The news created general and 
profound excitement. 

" Dissatisfaction was general. Its mutterings, already 
heard, began to break out in denunciations. The demagogues 
took up the cry and hounded on one another and the peo- 
ple in hunting down a victim. The public press was loaded 
with abuse. The Government was denounced for intrusting 
the public safety to hands so feeble." * 

The senators and representatives of Tennessee, with one 
exception, waited on the confederate President and demanded 
the removal of General Johnston. 

The fall of Fort Donelson made it necessary for General 
Johnston to evacuate Nashville or sacrifice the army. Not 
more than 11,000 effective men were left to him with 
which to oppose General Buell, with not less than 40,000 
men, moving by Bowling Green ; while another superior 
force, under General Thomas, was on the eastern flank ; and 
the armies from Fort Donelson, with the gunboats and trans- 

* Colonel Munford's speech at Memphis. 



I40 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

ports, had it in their power to ascend the Cumberland so as to 
interrupt all communication with the South. 

On the 17th and i8th of February, 1862, the main body of 
the army was moved to Murfreesboro. By the junction of the 
command of General Crittenden and the fugitives from Don- 
elson, the force of General Johnston was increased to 17,000 
men. On February 28th the march was commenced for De- 
catur, through Shelby ville and Fayetteville. Halting at those 
points, he saved his provisions and stores, removed his depots 
and machine-shops, obtained new arms, and finally, at the close 
of March, joined Beauregard at Corinth with 20,000 men — • 
making their aggregate force 50,000. 

In view of the great advantage which the means of trans- 
portation upon the Tennessee and Cumberland afforded the 
enemy, and the peculiar topography of the State, General 
Johnston found that he was compelled to select whether the 
enemy should be permitted to occupy Middle Tennessee or 
turn Columbus, take Memphis, and open the valley of the 
Mississippi. Deciding that the defence of the valley was of 
immeasurable importance he crossed the Tennessee and united 
with Beauregard. 

The evacuation of Nashville, and the evident intention of 
General Johnston to retreat still farther, created a panic which 
spread over the whole State. He was accused of imbecility, 
cowardice, and treason. An appeal from every class was made 
to the President demanding his removal. Congress took the 
matter in hand ; great feeling was shown in the debates ; a 
committee of inquiry was appointed ; but it was evident that 
the case was prejudged. 

A candid review of the situation at that period will show 
that, with the forces at his command. General Johnston 
achieved everything that was possible, and showed great ca- 
pacity as a soldier — that in all he did sound judgment and 
soldierly daring went hand in hand. 

Meanwhile west of the Mississippi some active operations 
had taken place. Detached conflicts with the enemy had 
been fought by the small forces under Generals Price and 
McCulloch, but without definite results. 

General Earl Van Dorn assumed command on January 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 141 

29, 1862. General Curtis was then in command of the enemy's 
forces, numbering about 12,000 men. V"an Dorn immediately 
determined to attack him. 

The battle of Elkhorn, or Pea Ridge, was fought on the 
morning of March 5th. Van Dorn reported his force to be 
14,000, and Curtis put his force at about 10,000. Van Dorn, 
with Price's division, encountered Carr's division, which had 
already advanced, and drove it back with heavy loss. Mean- 
while McCulloch's command met a division under Osterhaus, 
and after a sharp, quick struggle, swept it away. Pushing 
forward through stunted oak, his widely extended line met 
Sigel's, Astroth's, and Davis's divisions, and here, on the rag- 
ged spurs of the hills, a fearful combat ensued. In the crisis 
of the struggle McCulloch, dashing forward to reconnoitre, fell 
a victim to a sharpshooter, and Mcintosh, his second in com- 
mand, fell in charging a battery of the enemy with a regiment 
of Texas cavalry. Without leader or direction, the shattered 
lines of our forces left the field, to rally, after a wide circuit, 
on Price's division. When Van Dorn heard of this misfor- 
tune he urged his attack, pressing back the enemy until night 
closed the bloody combat. Van Dorn's head-quarters were 
then at Elkhorn Tavern, where the enemy's head-quarters had 
been in the morning. Each army was now in its opponent's 
line of communication. Van Dorn found his troops much 
disorganized and exhausted, short of ammunition, and without 
food. He made his arrangements to retreat. The battle was 
renewed at 7 A.M., and raged three hours. The retreat then 
began. There was no real pursuit. The attack had failed. 
The object had been to effect a diversion in behalf of General 
Johnston. This failed; but the enemy was badly crippled, 
and soon fell back to Missouri, of which he still retained pos- 
session. 

General Van Dorn was now ordered to join General John- 
ston by the quickest route. 

The movement of the enemy up the Tennessee River 
began on March loth. The ultimate design was to mass the 
forces of Grant and Buell against our army at Corinth. Buell 
was still in the occupation of Nashville. On the i6th Sher- 
man disembarked at Pittsburg Landing. On the next day 



142 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

General Grant took command. Two more divisions were 
added, and he assembled his army near Pittsburg Landing, 
the most advantageous base for a movement against Corinth. 
There it lay inactive until the battle of Shiloh. 

Pittsburg Landing, containing three or four log cabins, 
is situated about midway between the mouths of Owl and 
Lick Creeks, tributaries of the Tennessee. The mouths of 
these creeks are bordered by swamps filled with back water, 
and impassable except where the roads crossed them. The 
position of the enemy was naturally strong. With few and 
difificult approaches, guarded on either side by impassable 
streams and morasses, protected by a succession of ravines and 
acclivities, commanded by eminences in the rear, it seemed 
safe against attack and easy to defend. No defensive works 
were constructed. 



I 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I43 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. 

General Johnston, after falling back from Nashville, 
sought to concentrate his army at Corinth, and to fight the 
enemy in detail — Grant first and Buell afterward. General 
Polk's army was driven back from Columbus. General Lovell 
brought a brigade from Louisiana ; and General Bragg, with 
his well-disciplined army, was ordered from Florida to the aid 
of Johnston. In a period of four weeks fragments of commands 
from Kentucky, Alabama, and Louisiana, with such new levies 
as could be hastily raised, all badly armed and equipped, were 
united at and near Corinth and organized as an army. " It 
was a heterogeneous mass," wrote General Bragg, " in which 
there was more enthusiasm than discipline, more capacity 
than knowledge, more valor than instruction. Rifles, rifled 
and smooth-bore muskets — some of them originally percussion, 
others hastily altered from flint-locks by contractors — many 
with the old flint-and-steel, and shot-guns of all sizes and pat- 
terns held place in the same regiments. The task of organizing 
such a command in four weeks, and supplying it, especially 
with ammunition suitable for action, was simply appalling." 

This force, about 40,000 men of all arms, was divided into 
four corps, commanded respectively by Generals Polk, Bragg, 
Hardee, and Breckinridge. General Beauregard was second 
in command under Johnston. 

The plan to attack the Federal forces before Buell should 
unite with Grant was frustrated by the arrival of Buell two 
days earlier than he was expected. His advance reached 
Savannah on April 5, 1862 : next day we attacked Grant. 

At one o'clock on the morning of April 3d preliminary 
orders were issued to move at a moment's notice. General 
Hardee led the advance, and next morning reached Mickey's, 



144 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

a position about eighteen miles from Corinth and four or five 
miles from Pittsburg Landing. The second corps, under 
Bragg, bivouacked in the rear of Hardee's on the night of the 
4th. The first corps, under General Polk, consisted of two 
divisions, under Cheatham and Clarke. Clarke was ordered to 
follow Hardee at an interval of half an hour, and to halt near 
Mickey's, so as to allow Bragg's corps to fall in behind Har- 
dee, at a thousand yards' interval, and form a second line of 
battle. Polk's corps was to form the left wing of the third 
line of battle, and Breckinridge's reserve the right wing. The 
other division of Polk was on outpost duty near Bethel ; 
Cheatham, commanding it, was ordered to assemble his forces 
at Purdy and pursue the route to Monterey. He effected his 
junction on the 5th, and took position on the left wing of 
Polk's corps. Breckinridge's corps, delayed by rains, did not 
effect its junction with the other corps until late in the after- 
noon of the 5th. 

Owing to their delay in the march it was about four 
o'clock when the lines were completely formed — too late to 
begin the battle on that day. General Johnston, therefore, 
determined to attack early on the following morning. 

The results of the first day of the famous battle are very 
concisely presented in the following brief report of General 
Beauregard : 

" At 5 A.M., on the 6th instant, a reconnoitring party of the 
enemy having become engaged with an advance picket, the 
commander of the forces gave orders to begin the movement 
and attack as determined upon. . . . Thirty minutes 
after 5 A.M. our lines and columns were in motion, all ani- 
mated, evidently, with a promising spirit. The front line was 
engaged at once, but advanced steadily, followed, in due order, 
with equal resolution and steadiness, by the other lines, which 
were brought successively into action with rare skill, judg- 
ment, and gallantry by the several corps commanders, as the 
enemy made a stand, with his masses rallied, for the struggle 
for his encampments. Like an Alpine avalanche our troops 
moved forward, despite the desperate resistance of the enemy, 
until after 6 A.M., when we were in possession of all his encamp- 
ments between Owl and Lick Creeks but one, nearly all of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 145 

his field artillery, about 30 flags, colors, and standards, over 
3,000 prisoners — including a division commander and several 
brigade commanders — thousands of small arms, an immense 
supply of subsistence, forage, and munitions of war, and a large 
amount of means of transportation, all the substantial fruits 
of a complete victory, such, indeed, as, rarely have followed 
the most successful battles ; for never was an army so well 
provided as that of our enemy. 

" The remnant of his army had been driven, in utter dis- 
order, to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg, under the shelter 
of the heavy guns of his iron-clad gunboats, and we remained 
undisputed masters of his well-selected, admirably provided 
cantonments, after our twelve hours of obstinate conflict with 
his forces, who had been beaten from them and the contiguous 
covert, but only by the sustained onset of all the men we 
could bring into action." 

Alas ! it was that one uncaptured encampment that de- 
prived us of " the substantial fruits of a complete victory ; " 
that furnished a foothold for all the subsequent reinforcements 
sent by Buell, and gave occasion for the final withdrawal of 
our troops ; whereas, if it had been captured, and the waters of 
the Tennessee reached, as General Johnston designed, it was 
not too much to expect that Grant would have surrendered ; 
that, with a skilful commander like Johnston to lead our 
troops, the enemy would have sought safety on the north bank, 
of the Ohio ; that Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri would 
have been recovered, the Northwest disaffected, and our 
armies filled with the men of the Southwest, and perhaps of 
the Northwest also. 

But a terrible and unforeseen calamity robbed the South of 
the great results that would have followed the complete vic- 
tory impending at Shiloh. General Johnston was killed on 
the field of battle, just as the Confederate army was so fully 
victorious that, had the attack been vigorously pressed, Gen- 
eral Grant and his army would have been prisoners or fugi- 
tives before the setting of the sun. Such, at least, is the be- 
lief founded on the abundant and trustworthy evidence. 

" On the death of General Johnston," reported General 
Hardee, " the command having devolved upon General Beau- 
10 



146 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

regard, the conflict was continued until near sunset, and the 
advance divisions were within a few hundred yards of Pitts- 
burg, where the enemy were hurled in confusion, when the 
order to withdraw was received." 

General Polk said : " We had an hour or more of daylight 
still left, were within. one hundred and fifty to four hundred 
yards of the enemy's position, and nothing seemed wanting to 
complete the most brilliant victory of the war but to press 
forward and make a vigorous assault on the demoralized rem- 
nant of his forces." 

General Gilmer, the chief engineer of the Confederate 
States Army, in a letter dated September 17, 1872, to the son 
of General Johnston, writes : 

" It is my well-considered opinion that, if your father had 
survived the day, he would have crushed and captured Gen- 
eral Grant's army before the setting of the sun of the 6th. In 
fact, at the time your father received the mortal wound the 
day was ours. The enemy having lost all the strong positions 
on that memorable field, his troops fell back in great disorder 
on the banks of the Tennessee. To cover the confusion rapid 
fires were opened from the gunboats the enemy had placed in 
the river, but the shots passed entirely over our devoted men, 
who were exultant and eager to be led forward to the final 
assault, which must have resulted in a complete victory, owing 
to the confusion and general disorganization of the Federal 
troops. I knew the condition of General Grant's army at the 
moment, as I had reached a high projecting point on the bank 
of the river, about a mile above Pittsburg Landing, and could 
see the hurried movements to get the disordered troops across 
to the right bank. Several thousand had already passed, and 
a confused mass of men crowded to the landing to get on the 
boats that were employed in crossing. I rode rapidly to Gen- 
eral Bragg's position to report what I had seen, and suggested 
that if he would suspend the fire of his artillery and marshal 
his infantry for a general advance the enemy must surrender. 
General Bragg decided to advance, and authorized me and 
other officers to direct the commanders of the batteries to 
cease firing. 

" In the midst of the preparations orders reached General 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I47 

Bragg from General Beauregard directing the troops to be 
withdrawn and placed in camp for the night — the intention 
being to resume the contest in the morning. This decision 
was fatal, as the delay enabled General Buell and General 
Wallace to arrive on the field. That is, they came up in the 
course of the night." 

Sidney Johnston fell in sight of victory. The hour he 
had waited for, the event he had planned for, had arrived. 
His fame was vindicated ; but far dearer than this to his pa- 
triotic spirit was it with his dying eyes to see his country's 
flag, so lately drooping in disaster, triumphantly advancing. 
In his fall the great pillar of the Southern Confederacy was 
crushed. 

Grant's army being beaten, the next step of General John- 
ston's programme would have been followed — the defeat of 
Buell's and Wallace's forces, as they successively came up, and 
a return by our victorious army through Tennessee to Ken- 
tucky. The great embarrassment had been the want of good 
military weapons. These would have been largely supplied 
by the victory hoped for, and, in the light of what occurred, not 
unreasonably anticipated. I believe that again, in the history 
of war, the fate of an army depended on one man ; and more, 
that the fortunes of a country hung by the single thread of 
the life that was yielded on the field of Shiloh. 



148 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXII. 

FURTHER MILITARY EVENTS IN THE WEST. 

The condition of the Federal army, on the cessation of 
hostiHties on the evening of the 6th, is thus described by 
General Buell : 

" Of the army of not less than 50,000 effective men, which 
Grant held on the west bank of the Tennessee River, not 
more than 5,000 were in ranks and available on the battle-field 
at nightfall on the 6th, exclusive of Lew Wallace's division 
(say 8,500 men), that only came up during the night. The 
rest were either killed, wounded, captured, or scattered in in- 
extricable and hopeless confusion for miles along the banks of 
the river." 

Reinforced by the divisions of Wallace, Nelson, Critten- 
den, and McCook, and other forces, the enemy, on the morn- 
ing of the 7th, advanced and opened a heavy fire of musketry 
and artillery. A series of combats ensued, in which the Con- 
federates showed their usual valor ; but after the junction of 
Grant and Buell, which Johnston's movement was made to 
prevent, our force was unequal to resist the combined armies, 
and retreat was a necessity. 

Before the battle of Shiloh the Confederate forces aggre- 
gated 40,335 men; after the battle, 29,636, showing a loss of 
10,699 effective men ; of whom 1,728 were killed, 8,012 
wounded, and 959 were missing. Before the battle General 
Grant's effective force was 49,314; of whom he lost, in killed, 
wounded, and missing, 11,220. But Buell's reinforcements 
numbered 21,579, thus leaving ready for duty on the 7th 
59,673 men. 

On April 9th Major-General Halleck assumed command 
of the Federal armies at Pittsburg Landing. A reorganization 
was made with Grant's divisions for the right wing ; those of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 149 

Buell for the centre ; and those of General Pope for the left 
wing. An advance on Corinth was commenced. 

Corinth is a small village in the northeast corner of the 
State of Mississippi, ninety miles east of Memphis, and twenty 
miles west of the Tennessee River. The Memphis & Charles- 
ton Railroad, from east to west, and the Mobile and Ohio 
Railroads, from south to north, ran through it. Thus it 
served admirably for the concentration of our forces. Corinth 
was a strategic point of importance, and it was intended to 
hold it as long as possible; but it was untenable in the face of 
a largely superior force, owing to the ease with which railroad 
communications in the rear could be cut by the enemy's cav- 
alry. The defences were slight rifle-pits, and earthworks of 
little elevation or strength. 

Against this position General Halleck began a movement 
from Pittsburg Landing, on April 28th, with a force of 85,000 
effective men. He made slow progress. He had only reached 
within eight miles of Corinth on the 3d of May; on the 21st 
his batteries were within three miles. He continued his ap- 
proaches with extreme caution ; every night his army lay in 
an intrenched camp. 

The effective force of General Beauregard was less than 
45,000 men. He estimated the Federal force at between 
85,000 and 90,000 men. General Beauregard's opinion was 
that no general attack was to be hazarded ; but on May 3d an 
advance was made to attack the corps of General Pope, when 
only one of his divisions was in position. It gave way so 
rapidly that it could not be overtaken. Six days afterward 
another attempt to surprise the enemy was made, but it failed 
through the mistake of a guide. On May 26th, therefore, 
General Beauregard began his preparations for an evacuation, 
which, on the 29th, he succeeded in accomplishing without 
the loss of life or stores. 

On June 14th General Beauregard retired on surgeon's 
certificate of physical incapacity, and General Bragg was as- 
signed to the command. 

Meanwhile other noteworthy events had occurred in the 
Western Department. The strategy of the enemy in flanking 
some of our positions on the Mississippi River, by advancing 



I50 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

up the Tennessee River, was followed by his fitting out a 
naval fleet to move down the Mississippi. The fleet consisted 
of seven ironclads and one gunboat, ten mortar-boats (each 
carrying a 13-inch mortar), a coal-barge, two ordnance 
steamers, and two transports with troops. This fleet left 
Cairo on March 14th, and, after staying overnight at Hick- 
man, continued its course down to Island Number Ten, an 
island situated in that bend of the river which touches the 
border of Tennessee, a few miles farther up than New Madrid. 

In the latter part of February a large force of the enemy, 
under General Pope, left Missouri and moved to New Madrid, 
with the view of capturing it. Aided by the gunboats of 
Commander Hollins, our small force repulsed the assaults of 
the enemy three times; but the disparity of numbers soon 
demonstrated that the position was untenable. It was evac- 
uated on the night of March 13th. Its defence consisted of 
two earthworks, in which about twenty guns were mounted. 
They were spiked and rendered useless. 

The bombardment of Island Number Ten began on March 
15th, and was kept up night and day. On March 17th a 
general attack, with five gunboats and four mortar-boats, was 
made, and continued nine hours without serious results. Up 
to the 1st of April several thousand 13-inch- and rifle-shells 
were fired by the enemy. Finally, the Federal forces were 
greatly increased, and began to occupy both banks of the river, 
and also the river both above and below the island, when a 
portion of our force retired, and about April 7th the remainder 
surrendered. 

A week afterward the Federal fleet proceeded to Fort 
Pillow, about one hundred and eighty miles below Island 
Number Ten, and a bombardment was begun next day. It 
was continued without effect until the night of June 4th, when 
both Fort Pillow and Fort Randolph, some twelve miles below 
it, were evacuated, these positions having become untenable in 
consequence of the withdrawal of our forces from Corinth and 
the adjoining district of Tennessee. 

Nothing more remained to oppose the enemy's fleet but 
our gunboats at Memphis, some seventy miles farther down 
the river. The gallantry and efficiency displayed by our im- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 151 

provised river navy at New Madrid and Island Number Ten 
gave rise to hopes hardly justified by the number of our 
vessels or their armament. Our boats had fewer guns than 
those of the enemy, and they were less substantially con- 
structed. But their ofificers and crews took counsel of their 
country's need rather than of their own strength ; they man- 
fully engaged the enemy and disabled one of his rams ; but, 
after an hour's conflict, were compelled to retire. 

The possession of Memphis being no longer disputed, its 
occupation by the enemy promptly followed. 



152 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

NAVAL OPERATIONS IN THE EAST. 

Combined naval and military expeditions were organized 
at an early period by the United States Government to cap- 
ture our harbors and hold them, and to seize a portion of our 
cotton crop. The first of these expeditions — a fleet of naval 
vessels and transports— appeared off Hatteras Inlet on August 
27, 1 86 1. This inlet is a gap in the sandy barrier that lines 
the coast of North Carolina about eighteen miles southwest 
of Cape Hatteras. It is the principal entrance to Pamlico 
Sound. The channel was protected by two small forts con- 
structed on the sand. After a short bombardment, which de- 
veloped the greatly superior strength of the enemy, our forces, 
under the command of Captain Barron, capitulated. 

A much larger fleet, carrying I5,0CXD men, appeared off the 
harbor of Port Royal, S. C, on November 4, 1861. This 
harbor is situated midway between the cities of Charleston 
and Savannah. It is a broad estuary, and contains a group 
of numerous islands, on which grow rice and the famous sea- 
island cotton. It is the richest agricultural region of the State. 
Its principal defences were Fort Walker, a strong earthwork 
on Hilton Head, and Fort Beauregard on Phillip's Island, 
The assault was made by the enemy on the 7th. The attack- 
ing fleet consisted of eight steamers and a sloop-of-war. The 
conflict continued for four hours, when the forts, becoming 
untenable, were abandoned. 

It seems proper here briefly to refer to the system of coast 
defences adopted to resist the aggressions of the enemy. Im- 
mediately after the bombardment of Fort Sumter the work of 
improving the sea-coast defence was begun, and carried for- 
ward as rapidly as the limited means of the Government would 
permit. In the words of General A. L. Long^ a distinguished 
officer of artillery : 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 53 

" Roanoke Island and other points on Albemarle and Pam- 
lico Sounds were fortified. Batteries were established on the 
southeast entrance of Cape Fear River, and the works on the 
southwest entrance strengthened. Defences were constructed 
at Georgetown and at all available points on the northeast 
coast of South Carolina. The works of Charleston Harbor 
were greatly strengthened by earthworks and floating batter- 
ies. The defences from Charleston down the coast of South 
Carolina and Georgia were confined chiefly to the islands and 
salient points bearing upon the channels leading inland. De- 
fensive works were erected at all important points along the 
coast. Many of the defences, being injudiciously located and 
hastily erected, offered but little resistance to the enemy when 
attacked. As soon as a sufficient naval force had been col- 
lected, an expedition, under the command of General B. F. 
Butler, was sent to the coast of North Carolina, and it cap- 
tured several important points. A second expedition, under 
Admiral Du Pont and General Thomas W. Sherman, was sent 
to make a descent on the coast of South Carolina. On the 
7th of November Du Pont attacked the batteries that were 
designed to defend Port Royal Harbor, and almost without 
resistance carried them and gained possession of Port Royal. 
This is the best harbor on South Carolina, and is the strategic 
key to all the South Atlantic coast. Later, Burnside captured 
Roanoke Island and established himself in eastern North Car- 
olina without resistance. The rapid fall of Roanoke Island 
and Port Royal Harbor struck consternation into the hearts of 
the inhabitants along the entire coast. The capture of Port 
Royal gave to the Federals the entire possession of Beaufort 
Island, which afforded a secure place of rest for the army, 
while the harbor gave a safe anchorage for the fleet. . 
The evacuation of Hilton Head followed the capture of Port 
Royal. This exposed Savannah, only about twenty-five miles 
distant, to an attack from that direction. At the same time, 
the Federals having possession of Helena Bay, Charleston was 
liable to be assailed from North Edisto or Stone Inlet, could 
the railroad have been reached without opposition by the 
route from Port Royal to Pocotaligo. 

" Such was the condition of affairs when General Robert 



154 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

E. Lee reached Charleston, about December i, 1861, to assume 
the command of the Department of North Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida. Directing fortifications to be constructed on the 
Stone, the Edisto, and the Combahee, he fixed his head- 
quarters at Coosawhatchie, the point most threatened, and 
ordered the erection of defences opposite Hilton Head and on 
the Broad and Salkehatchie, to cover Savannah. He super- 
intended in person the works overlooking the approach to the 
railroad from Port Royal, and soon infused into the troops a 
part of his own energy. The works rose with magical rapidity. 
A few days after his arrival Du Pont and Sherman sent their 
first reconnaissance in the direction of Coosawhatchie. They 
were met and repulsed by shots from the newly erected bat- 
teries ; and now, whether the Federals advanced toward the 
railroad or turned in the direction of Charleston or Savannah, 
they were arrested by our batteries. The people, seeing the 
Federals repulsed at every point, regained their confidence, 
and with it their energy. 

" General Lee next proceeded to organize a new system of 
sea-coast defence. After a careful reconnaissance of the coast, 
he designated, as the most important positions that he con- 
sidered it necessary to fortify, Charleston, Pocotaligo, Coosa- 
whatchie, and Savannah. These detached and supporting 
works covered a most important agricultural country, and 
sufificed to defend it from the smaller expeditions made against 
that district. 

"About March ist the gunboats of the enemy entered 
the Savannah River by way of the channel leading from 
Hilton Head. Our naval force was too weak to dispute the 
possession with them, and they thus cut off the communica- 
tions of Fort Pulaski with the city. Soon after, the enemy 
landed a force, under General Gillmore, on the opposite side 
of the fort. By April ist they had powerful batteries in 
position, and on that day opened fire on the fort. Having 
no hopes of succor, Fort Pulaski, after striking a blow for 
honor, surrendered with about 500 men."* 

* General A. L. Long, in Historical Society Papers, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 155 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

OPENING OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 

Early in the year 1862 the Federal Government, by the 
advice of Major-General McClellan and twelve otherVederal 
commanders, abandoned the line of operations against Rich- 
mond, and decided in favor of the movement by the way of 
Annapolis, and thence to the Rappahannock. 

As soon as we ascertained that the enemy was concentrat- 
ing his forces at Fortress Monroe, to advance upon our cap- 
ital by that line of approach, all our disposable force was 
ordered to the peninsula between the James and York Rivers, 
to the support of General John B. Magruder, who, with a 
force of 7,000 or 8,000 men, had constructed an intrenched line 
across the peninsula, and had thus far successfully checked 
every attempt to break it, though the enemy was vastly 
superior in numbers to the troops under his cornmand. The 
greater part of our army, under General Joseph E. Johnston, 
was sent to strengthen them in counteracting the new plan of 
the enemy. 

Early in April McClellan had landed about 100,000 men 
in and near Fortress Monroe. At that time Magruder occu- 
pied the lower peninsula with his force of 7,000 or 8,000 men. 
Marshes, creeks, and dense wood gave to the position of the 
Confederate commander such advantage that he expressed 
the belief that with 20,000 or 25,000 men he could hold it 
against any supposable attack. When McClellan advanced 
with his immense army, Magruder fell back to the line of 
the Warwick River, and there checked the enemy. Repulsed 
in regular assaults by the heroic conduct of our troops, the vast 
army of invasion commenced a siege by regular approaches. 
By reinforcements from the army of Northern Virginia Gen- 



156 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

eral Magruder's force was increased to about 20,000 men. 
McClellan's force numbered 85,000. 

Various conflicts ensued soon after the landing of the 
enemy, and a vigorous attempt was made to break our line 
at Lee's Mills, where there were some newly constructed de- 
fences. The enemy was signally repulsed. Another serious 
attempt was made soon afterward to break the line of the 
Warwick, at Dam No. i, about the centre of the line, and its 
weakest point. Opening at nine o'clock in the morning with 
a heavy bombardment, which continued until three o'clock in 
the afternoon, heavy masses of infantry then commenced to 
deploy, and, with musketry fire, were thrown forward to storm 
our 6-pounder battery, which had been effectively used, and 
was the only artillery we had in position, A portion of the 
column charged across the dam, but General Howell Cobb 
met the attack with great firmness, and the enemy was driven 
by the bayonet from some of our rifle-pits, of which he had 
gained possession, and the assaulting column recoiled with 
severe loss from the well-directed fire of our troops. 

The enemy's skirmishers pressed closely in front of the 
redoubts on the left of our line, and with their long-range 
rifles had a decided advantage over our men, armed with 
smooth-bore muskets. In addition to the rifle-pits which they 
dug, they were covered by a dwelling-house and a large peach 
orchard, which extended to within a few hundred yards of our 
works. On the nth of April General Magruder ordered sor- 
ties to be made from all the main points of his line. General 
Wilcox's detachment encountered the advance of the enemy 
in his front and drove it back to the main line. Later in the 
day Colonel Taylor, with a Florida regiment and the Second 
Mississippi Battalion, drove the sharpshooters from their rifle- 
pits and pursued them to the main road from Warwick Court- 
house, encountered a battery posted at an earthwork, and 
compelled it precipitately to retire. On the approach of a 
large force of the enemy's infantry. Colonel Ward, command- 
ing the Florida regiment, returned to our works, after having 
set fire to the dwelling-house above mentioned. On the next 
night Colonel Terry's Virginia regiment was sent out to cut 
down the peach orchard and burn down the rest of the houses 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 5/ 

that had afforded shelter to the assailants ; and on the suc- 
ceeding day Colonel McRae, with his North Carolina regi- 
ment, went still farther to the front and felled the cedars 
along the main road, which partially hid the enemy's move- 
ments. Subsequently our men were not annoyed by the 
sharpshooters. 

About the middle of April a further reinforcement of two 
divisions from the army of Northern Virginia was added to 
our forces on the peninsula, which amounted, when General 
Johnston assumed command, to something over 50,000. 

The work of strengthening the defences was still continued. 
On the 1 6th of April an assault was made on our line to the 
right of Yorktown. It was repulsed with heavy loss to the 
enemy. So serious was his discomfiture that henceforward he 
seemed to rely on bombardment, for which numerous batter- 
ies were prepared. 

Meanwhile the brilliant movements of the intrepid Jack- 
son created such apprehensions of an attack on Washington 
City by the army of the Shenandoah, that President Lincoln 
refused the repeated requests of General McClellan to send 
him McDowell's corps to operate on the north side of the 
York River against our battery at Gloucester Point. 

The month of April was cold and rainy, and our men were 
poorly provided with shelter, and with only the plainest ra- 
tions; still, they labored steadily to perfect the defences, and, 
when they were not on the front line, were constantly employed 
in making traverses and epaulments in the rear. Yet the great 
superiority of the enemy in men and materials of war caused 
our commanding general to abandon the Warwick ; and the 
permanent occupation of Norfolk, after our army should 
withdraw from the lower peninsula, was clearly impossible. 
Notified by General Johnston that he would Avithdraw on 
the 2 1st of April, I ordered the abandonment of the navy- 
yard and the removal of public property both from Norfolk 
and the peninsula. The order for the withdrawal of the army 
from the line of the Warwick River, delayed until the night 
of the 3d, was so successfully carried out that the enemy were 
surprised next morning to find our lines unoccupied. 

The entire Federal army was at once put in motion to 



158 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

pursue the retreating Confederate army. At Williamsburg, 
about twelve miles from Yorktown, General Magruder had 
constructed a line of detached works. Fort Magruder, the 
largest of these works, was constructed at a point a short dis- 
tance beyond where the Lee's Mill and the Yorktown roads 
united. 

On the morning of the 5th of May General Hooker's 
division came up, near Williamsburg, with the Confederate 
rear-guard under General Longstreet. Hooker's forces were 
massed in a forest. As soon as they were brought into open 
ground they were gallantly attacked, and they retired with the 
loss of five guns. Hooker was reinforced until nine brigades 
were engaged with Longstreet. During the entire day the 
Federal army was held in check, and next morning the Con- 
federate forces continued their retreat without further moles- 
tation. 

McClellan's army at this time numbered 112,392. The 
Confederate force did not exceed 50,000, and was probably 
less. 

General McClellan's official report, dated from " Bivouac 
in front of Williamsburg," says : 

" General Hancock had taken two redoubts and repulsed 
Early's rebel brigade by a real charge of the bayonet, taking 
one colonel and 150 other prisoners." 

From General Early's report only the briefest extract can 
be given : 

" In an open field in view of Fort Magruder, at the end 
farthest from the fort, the enemy had taken position with a 
battery of six pieces, supported by a brigade of infantry un- 
der command of Brigadier-General Hancock. In this field 
were two or three redoubts, previously built by our troops, of 
one, at least, of which the enemy had taken possession, his ar- 
tillery being posted in front of it, near some farm-houses, and 
supported by a body of infantry, the balance of the infantry 
being in the redoubt and in the edge of the woods close by. 
The Twenty-fourth Virginia regiment came directly upon 
this battery, and, without pausing or wavering, charged upon 
the enemy under heavy fire and drove back his guns, and the 
infantry supporting them, to the cover of the redoubt. I sent 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 59 

orders to the other regiments to advance. These orders were 
anticipated by Colonel McRae of the Fifth North Carolina 
regiment, who marched down to the support of the Twenty- 
fourth, traversing the whole front that should have been oc- 
cupied by the other two regiments." 

General Early, severely wounded, was obliged to leave the 
field just as the North Carolinans charged on the enemy's ar- 
tillery. He witnessed the charge, and said of it, " Its gallantry 
is unsurpassed in the annals of warfare." 

The claim of the enemy to have achieved a victory at 
Williamsburg is refuted by the fact that our troops remained 
in possession of the field overnight, and resumed their march 
without molestation next morning, carrying with them nine 
pieces of Federal artillery that they had captured. The loss 
of the enemy greatly exceeded our own, which was about 1,200; 
while General Hooker stated the loss in his division to have 
been 1,700. Here, for the first time, subterra shells were em- 
ployed to check a marching column. The event is thus de- 
scribed by General Rains, the inventor : 

" On the day we left Williamsburg, after the battle, we 
worked hard to get our artillery, and some we had captured, 
over the sloughs about four miles distant. On account of 
the tortuous course of the road we could not bring a single 
gun to bear upon the enemy, who were pursuing us and shell- 
ing the road as they advanced. Fortunately we found in a 
mud-hole a broken-down ammunition wagon containing five 
loaded shells. Four of these, armed with a sensitive fuse- 
primer were planted in our rear, near some trees cut down as 
obstructions on the road. A body of the enemy's cavalry 
came upon these subterra shells and they exploded with ter- 
rific effect. 

" The force behind halted for three days, and finally turned 
off from the road, doubtless under the apprehension that it was 
mined throughout. Thus our rear was relieved of the enemy." 

The retreat was successfully accomplished. 



l6o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXV. 

JACKSON'S SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN. 

The withdrawal of our army to the Chickahominy, the 
abandonment of Norfolk, the destruction of the Virginia, and 
the opening of the lower James River, together with the fact 
that McClellan's army, by changing his base to the head 
of York River, was in a position to cover the approach to 
Washington, and thus be joined by the large forces hitherto 
specially retained for the protection of the Federal capital — 
all combined to give a new phase to our military problem. 
Attempts to utilize the James River for transportation, so 
as to approach directly to Richmond, soon followed. We 
had no defences in the James River below Drury's Bluff, 
about seven miles from Richmond. There an earthwork had 
been constructed and provided with an armament of four guns. 
Rifle-pits had been made in front of the fort, and obstructions 
had been placed in the river by driving piles and sinking 
some vessels. The fort was in charge of Commander Farrand 
of the Confederate navy. 

On the morning of the 15th of April the enemy's fleet of 
five ships of war — among them the Monitor — opened fire on 
the fort. The Monitor and the ironclad Galena steamed up 
to about six hundred yards' distance ; the wooden vessels were 
kept at long range. The armor of the flag-ship. Galena, was 
badly injured, and thirty of her men were killed and wounded. 
The Monitor was struck repeatedly, but the shots only bent 
her plates. After an engagement of four hours the fleet with- 
drew, discomfited. The result of the action was the adoption 
of a policy by the enemy, founded on the belief that a land 
force was necessary to co-operate with the fleet in reducing 
earthworks, and that without such a co-operating force the 
water approach to Richmond was impracticable. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. i6l 

The relative strength of the contending armies should be 
noted here. On the 30th of April, 1862, McClellan's army had 
present for duty 112,392 men; on the 20th of June— omit- 
ting the army corps of General Dix at Fortress Monroe— 105,- 
825. The strength of the army under General Johnston, on 
the 2ist of May, was 53,688 of all arms; subsequently, on the 
2 1st of May, 62,096. McClellan had been constantly demand- 
ing reinforcements. They were not furnished to the extent 
called for, because the movements of " Stonewall " Jackson 
had created an alarm in Washington, which amounted to a 
panic, for the safety of the capital. 

On May 23d General Jackson, with whose force that of 
General Ewell had united, moved with such rapidity as to 
surprise the enemy. Ewell, who was in advance, captured 
most of the troops at Front Royal, and pressed directly on to- 
ward Winchester, while Jackson, returning across, struck the 
main column of the enemy in flank and drove it back to Stras- 
burg. The pursuit was continued to Winchester, and the 
enemy, under General Banks, fled across the Potomac into 
Maryland. Two thousand prisoners were taken in the pur- 
suit. 

When the news of the attack on Front Royal, on May 
23d, reached General Geary, charged with the protection of 
the Manassas Gap Railroad, he immediately moved to Manas- 
sas Junction. At the same time his troops, hearing the most 
extravagant stories, burned their tents and destroyed a quan- 
tity of arms. General Duryea, at Catlett's station, becoming 
alarmed at hearing of the withdrawal of Geary, took his 
three New York regiments, leaving a Pennsylvania one be- 
hind, hastened back to Centreville, and telegraphed back to 
Washington for aid. He left behind a large quantity of ar- 
my stores. The alarm spread to Washington, and Stanton, 
the Secretary of War, issued a call to the governors of the 
" loyal " States for militia to defend that city. 

The alarm at Washington, and the call for more troops for 
its defence, produced an indescribable panic in the cities of 
the North on the following Sunday, the 25th of May. Gov- 
ernors and mayors issued frantic appeals to induce further 
enlistments. 
11 



1 62 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

While this panic in the head-quarters of the enemy had dis- 
seminated itself through the military and social ramifications 
of Northern society, the excitement was tumultuous. Mean- 
while General Jackson, knowing nothing of the panic he had 
caused, after driving the enemy out of Winchester, pressed 
eagerly on, not pausing to accept the congratulations of the 
overjoyed people at the sight of their own friends again 
among them ; for he had learned that the enemy had garri- 
sons at Charlestown and Harper's Ferry, and he was resolved 
they should not rest on Virginia soil. General Winder's bri- 
gade, in the advance, found the enemy drawn up in line of 
battle at Charlestown. He engaged them and drove them in 
disorder toward the Potomac. The main column then moved 
on near to Harper's Ferry, where General Jackson received in- 
formation that Fremont was moving from the west, and the 
whole, or a part, of McDowell's corps from the east, to make a 
junction in his rear and thus cut off his retreat. At this 
time General Jackson's effective force was about 15,000 men 
— much less than either of the two armies which were march- 
ing to form a junction against him. General Jackson had 
captured, in his campaign down the Valley, a very large 
amount of valuable stores, over 9,000 small-arms, 2 pieces of 
artillery, many horses, and, besides the sick and wounded who 
had been released on parole, was said to have 2,300 prisoners. 
The amount of captured stores and other property which he 
was anxious to preserve required a wagon train twelve miles 
long. This, under escort of a regiment, was sent forward in 
advance of the army, which promptly retired up the Valley. 

On his retreat General Jackson received information of 
the defeat of a small force he had left at Front Royal in charge 
o£ prisoners and captured stores. The stores, however, had 
been destroyed by the garrison before retreating. Strasburg 
being Jackson's objective point, he had farther to march to 
reach that position than either of the columns operating against 
him. The rapidity of movement which marked General Jack- 
son's operations had given to his command the appellation of 
" foot cavalry ; " and never had they more need to prove them- 
selves entitled to the name of " Stonewall." 

On the night of the 31st of May, by a forced march, Gen- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 163 

eral Jackson arrived with the head of his column at Strasburg, 
and learned that General Fremont's advance was in the im- 
mediate vicinity. To gain time for the rest of his army to 
arrive, General Jackson decided to check Fremont's, march 
by an attack in the morning. The movement was assigned 
to Ewell, General Jackson personally giving his attention to 
preserving his immense train filled with captured stores. The 
repulse of Fremont's advance was so easy that General Taylor 
described it as offering a temptation to go beyond Jackson's 
orders and make a serious attack upon Fremont's army ; but 
recognizing the justice of the restraint imposed by the order, 
as " we could not waste time chasing Fremont," for it was re- 
ported that General Shields v/as at Front Royal with troops 
of a different character from those of Fremont's army, which 
had been encountered near Strasburg, id est, the corps com- 
manded by General O. O. Howard, and called by both sides 
" the flying Dutchman." This more formidable command of 
General Shields therefore required immediate attention. 

On the evening of the ist of June General Jackson con- 
tinued his march up the Valley. Fremont followed in pursuit, 
while Shields moved slowly up the Valley, via Luray, for the 
purpose of reaching New Market in advance of Jackson. 

On the morning of the 5th Jackson reached Harrisonburg 
and turned toward the east in the direction of Port Republic. 
General Ashby had destroyed all the bridges between Front 
Royal and Port Republic to prevent Shields from crossing 
the Shenandoah to join Fremont. The troops were now per- 
mitted to make shorter marches, and were allowed some halts 
to refresh themselves after their forced marches and frequent 
combats. 

Early on the 6th of June Fremont's reinforced cavalry at- 
tacked our cavalry rear-guard under General Ashby. A sharp 
conflict ensued, which resulted in the repulse of the enemy 
and the capture of Colonel Percy Wyndham, commanding the 
brigade, and of 63 others. Seeing indications of a more serious 
attack. General Ashby sent a message to Ewell, informing him 
of the situation ; and two regiments — the Fifty-eighth Vir- 
ginia and the First Maryland — were sent to his support. An 
attack on the enemy was made, and he was driven from the 



l64 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

field with heavy loss. Our own loss was 17 killed, 50 wounded, 
and 3 missing. But we suffered a great loss in the death of 
that stainless, fearless hero, General Turner Ashby, of whom 
General Jackson truly said, " As a partisan officer I never 
knew his superior." 

The main body of General Jackson's command had now 
reached Port Republic, a village situated in the angle formed 
by the junction of the North and South Rivers, tributaries of 
the south fork of the Shenandoah. Over the North River 
was a wooden bridge, connecting the town with Harrisonburg. 
Over the South River there was a ford. Jackson's immediate 
command was encamped on the high ground north of the vil- 
lage, and about a mile from the river. Ewell was four miles 
distant, near the road leading from Harrisonburg to Port Re- 
public. General Fremont had arrived with his forces in the 
vicinity of Harrisonburg, and General Shields was moving 
up the east side of the Shenandoah and had reached Conrad's 
Store. Each was about fifteen miles distant from Jackson's 
position. To prevent a junction, the bridge over the river 
near Shields' position had been destroyed. 

As the advance of General Shields approached on the 8th, 
the brigades of Taliaferro and Winder were ordered to occu- 
py positions immediately north of the bridge. The enemy's 
cavalry, accompanied by artillery, then appeared, and, after 
directing a few shots into the village, planted one of their 
pieces at the southern entrance of the bridge. Meanwhile our 
batteries were placed in position, and Taliaferro's brigade, 
having approached the bridge, was ordered to dash across, 
capture the piece, and occupy the town. This was gallantly 
done, and the enemy's cavalry were dispersed and driven back, 
abandoning another gun. A considerable body of cavalry 
was now seen advancing, when our batteries opened with such 
effect that in a short time the infantry followed the cavalry, 
falling back three miles. They were pursued about a mile by 
our batteries on the opposite side, but they disappeared in a 
wood. 

Hardly had the attack of Shields been repulsed when 
Ewell became seriously engaged with Fremont, moving on 
the opposite side of the riven The enemy pushed forward. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. " 165 

driving in the pickets, which by gallant resistance checked 
their advance until Ewell had time to select his position on a 
commanding ridge, with a rivulet and open ground in front, 
woods on both flanks, and the road at Port Republic inter- 
secting his line. Trimble's brigade was posted on the right, 
four batteries in the centre, Stuart's brigade on the left, and 
Elzey's in rear of the centre. Both wings were in the woods. 
About ten o'clock the enemy posted his artillery opposite our 
batteries, and a fire was kept up for several hours, with great 
spirit, on both sides. Meanwhile a brigade of the enemy ad- 
vanced under cover upon General Trimble, who reserved his 
fire until they reached within range, when he poured forth a 
deadly fire, under which they fell back. Trimble, supported 
by two regiments of Elzey's reserve, now advanced with 
spirit, skirmishing more than a mile from his original line, 
driving the opposing force back to its former position. Ewell, 
finding that no attack on his left was designed by the enemy, 
advanced and drove in their skirmishers, and at night was in 
the position previously occupied by the foe. 

This engagement has generally been known as the battle 
of Cross Keys. 

As Shields made no movement to renew the action of the 
8th, Jackson determined to attack him on the 9th. Ewell's 
forces were moved at an early hour toward Port Republic, 
and Trimble was left to hold Fremont in check, or, if hard 
pressed, to retire across the river and burn the bridge. 

Meanwhile the enemy had taken position about two miles 
from Port Republic, their right on the river bank, their left 
on the top of the mountain, which here threw out a spur, 
between which and the river was a smooth plain about one 
thousand yards wide. On an elevated plateau of the moun- 
tain was placed a battery of long-range guns to sweep the 
plain over which our forces must pass to attack. In front 
of that plateau was a deep gorge, through which flowed a 
small stream bending to the southern part of the promontory, 
so as to leave its northern point in advance of the southern. 
The mountain side Avas covered with dense wood. 

Such was the position which Jackson must assail or lose 
the opportunity to fight his foe in detail, the object for which 



l66 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

his forced marches had been made, and on which his best 
hopes depended. 

General Winder's brigade moved down the river to attack, 
when the enemy's battery upon the plateau opened, and it 
was found to rake the plain over which we must advance for 
a considerable distance in front of Shields' position. Our 
guns were brought forward and an attempt was made to dis- 
lodge the battery of the enemy, but our fire proved unequal to 
theirs; whereupon General Winder, having been reinforced, 
attempted by a rapid charge to capture it, but encountered 
such a heavy fire of artillery and small-arms as to compel 
his command, composed of his own and another brigade, with 
a light battery, to fall back in disorder. The enemy advanced 
steadily, and in such numbers as to drive back our infantry 
supports and render it necessary to withdraw our guns. Ewell 
was hurrying his men over the bridge, and there was no fear, 
if human effort would avail, that he would come too late. 
But the condition was truly critical. General Taylor de- 
scribes his chief at that moment thus : 

" Jackson was on the road, a little in advance of his line, 
where the fire was hottest, with the reins on his horse's neck, 
seemingly in prayer. Attracted by my appearance, he said 
in his usual voice, ' Delightful excitement.' " 

He then briefly gave Taylor instructions to move against 
the battery on the plateau, and sent a young officer from his 
staff as guide. 

The advance of the enemy was checked by an attack on 
his flank by two of our regiments under Colonel Scott. But 
this was only a temporary relief, for this small company was 
soon afterward driven back to the woods with severe loss. 
Our batteries during the attack were all safely withdrawn 
except one 6-pounder gun. 

In this critical condition of Winder's command. General 
Taylor made a successful attack on the left and rear of the 
enemy, which diverted his attention and led to a consolidation 
of his force upon Taylor. Moving to the right along the 
mountain acclivity, he was unseen before he emerged from 
the wood, just as the loud cheers of the enemy proclaimed 
their success in front. Although opposed by a superior force 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 167 

in front and flank, and with their guns in position, with a rush 
and shout the gorge was passed, impetuously the charge was 
made, and the battery of six guns fell into our hands. Three 
times was the battery lost and won in the desperate and 
determined efforts to capture and recover it, and the enemy 
finally succeeded in carrying off one of the guns, leaving both 
caisson and limber. Thus occupied with Taylor, the enemy 
halted in his advance and formed a line facing to the moun- 
tain. Winder succeeded in rallying his command, and our 
batteries were replaced in their former positions. At the 
same time reinforcements were brought by Ewell to Taylor, 
who pushed forward with them, assisted by the well-directed 
fire of our artillery. 

Of this period in the battle General Taylor gives a graphic 
description : 

" The fighting in and around the battery was hand to hand, 
and many fell from bayonet wounds. Even the artillerymen 
used their rammers in a way not laid down in the manual, and 
died at the guns. . . . With a desperate rally, in which I 
believe the drummer-boys shared, we carried the battery for 
the third time, and held it. Infantry and riflemen had been 
driven off, and we began to feel a little comfortable, when the 
enemy, arrested in his advance by our attack, appeared. He 
had countermarched, and, with left near the river, came into 
full view of our situation. Wheeling to the right, with colors 
advanced, like a solid wall he marched straight upon us. 
There seemed nothing left but to set our backs to the moun- 
tain and die hard. At the instant, crashing through the 
underwood, came Ewell, outriding staff and escort. He pro- 
duced the effect of a reinforcement, and was welcomed with 
cheers. The line before us halted and threw out skirmishers. 
A moment later a shell came shrieking along it, loud Con- 
federate cheers reached our delighted ears, and Jackson, freed 
from his toils, rushed up like a whirlwind." * 

The enemy, in his advance, had gone in front of the 
plateau where his battery was placed, the elevation being 
sufficient to enable the guns, without hazard, to be fired over 

* See Destruction and Reconstruction, pp. 75, 76. 



l68 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the advancing line; so when he commenced retreating he had 
to pass by the position of this battery, and the captured guns 
were effectively used against him, that dashing old soldier, 
" E\vell, serving as a gunner." Although the retreat of the 
enemy was so precipitate as to cause him to leave his killed 
and wounded on the field, it was never converted into a rout. 
The pursuit was continued some five miles beyond the battle- 
field. We captured 450 prisoners, some wagons, one piece 
of abandoned artillery, and about 800 muskets. Some 275 
wounded were paroled in the hospitals near Port Republic. 
On the next day Fremont withdrew his forces and retreated 
down the Valley. The rapid movements of Jackson, the eagle- 
like swoop with which he descended upon each army of the 
enemy, and the terror which his name had come to inspire, 
created a general alarm at Washington, where it was believed 
that he must have an immense army, and that he was about 
to come down like an avalanche upon the Federal capital. 
Milroy, Banks, Fremont, and Shields were all moved in that 
direction, and peace again reigned in the valley of the Shen- 
andoah. 

During this remarkable campaign " Jackson had marched 
six hundred miles, fought four pitched battles, seven minor 
engagements, and daily skirmishes; had defeated four armies, 
captured 7 pieces of artillery, 10,000 stand of arms, 4,000 
prisoners, and a very large amount of stores, inflicting upon 
his adversaries a known loss of 2,000 men, with a loss on his 
part comparatively small." * 

The general effect upon the affairs of the Confederacy was 
even more important, and the motives which influenced Jack- 
son presented him in a grander light than any military success 
could have done. Thus, on the 26th of March, 1862, he 
learned that a large body of the enemy, before which he had 
retired, was returning down the Valley; and, divining the ob- 
ject to. be to send forces to the east side of the mountain to 
co-operate in the attack on Richmond, General Jackson, with 
a small force of about 3,000 infantry and 290 cavalry, moved 
with his usual celerity in pursuit. He overtook the rear col- 

* Stonewall Jackson, a Military Biography, by John Esten Cooke, p. 191. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 169 

umn at Kernstown, attacked a very superior force he found 
there, and fought with such desperation as to impress the enemy 
with the idea that he had a large army. The detachments, 
therefore, which had already started for Manassas, were re- 
called and additional forces were sent into the Valley. Nor 
was this all. McDowell's corps, under orders to join Mc- 
Clellan, was detached for the defence of the Federal capital. 

Jackson's bold strategy having effected its object he slowly 
withdrew to the south bank of the Shenandoah, where he was 
undisturbed and had time to recruit his forces, which now (in 
April) amounted to 6,000 or 7,000 men. 

General Banks held Harrisonburg, fifteen miles from Jack- 
son's position, and Fremont, with a force estimated at 15,000, 
was preparing to join him. Jackson left Ewell at Gordon- 
ville, to hold Banks in check, and marched to unite with the 
brigade of Edward Johnson. The united forces attacked Mil- 
roy and Schenck, who after a severe conflict retreated in the 
night to join Fremont. 

Jackson then returned toward Harrisonburg and attacked 
and defeated Banks, inflicting great loss and driving him across 
the Potomac. 

In all these operations there conspicuously appears the 
self-abnegation of a devoted patriot. Jackson was not seeking 
by great victories to acquire fame for himself. He heroically 
strove to do what was possible for the general welfare of the 
cause he maintained. His whole heart was his country's, and 
his whole country's heart became his. 



I70 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES. 

As early as the 20th of May, finding the crossing at Bot- 
tom's Bridge unobstructed, the enemy threw a brigade across 
the Chickahominy, and on the 23d and 25th he sent addi- 
tional forces and commenced fortifying a line near to Seven 
Pines. In the afternoon of the 31st of May, riding out on the 
New Bridge road, I heard firing in the direction of the Seven 
Pines. As we could not find out from any of our officers 
what the firing meant. General Lee and myself rode to the 
field of battle, which may be briefly described as follows : 

The Chickahominy, flowing in front, is a deep, sluggish, and 
narrow river, bordered by marshes and covered with tangled 
wood. The line of battle extended along the Nine-mile road, 
across the York River Railroad and Williamsburg stage-road. 
The enemy had constructed redoubts, with long lines of rifle-pits 
covered by abatis, from below Bottom's Bridge to within less 
than two miles of New Bridge, and had constructed bridges 
to connect his forces on the north and south sides of the 
Chickahominy. The left of his forces, on the south side, was 
thrown forward from the river ; the right was on its bank, 
and covered by its slope. Our main force was on the right 
flank of our position, extending on both sides of the Williams- 
burg road, near to its intersection with the Nine-mile road. 
This wing consisted of Hill's, Huger's, and Longstreet's divis- 
ions, with light batteries and a small force of cavalry ; the 
division of General G. W. Smith, less Hood's brigade, or- 
dered to the right, formed the left wing, and its position was 
on the Nine-mile road. There were small tracts of cleared 
land, but most of the ground was wooded, and much of it so 
covered with water as to seriously embarrass the movements 
of troops. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I/I 

When General Lee and I, riding down the Nine-mile road, 
reached the left of our line, we found the troops hotly en- 
gaged. Our men had driven the enemy from his advanced 
encampment, and he had fallen back behind an open field to 
the bank of the river, where, in a dense wood, was concealed 
an infantry line, with artillery in position. Soon after our ar- 
rival, General Johnston, who had gone farther to the right, 
where the conflict was expected, and whither reinforcements 
from the left were marching, was brought back severely 
wounded, and as soon as an ambulance could be obtained, was 
removed from the field. 

Our troops on the left made vigorous assaults under most 
disadvantageous circumstances. They made several gallant 
attempts to carry the enemy's position, but were each time 
repulsed with heavy loss. 

After a personal reconnaissance on the left of the open in 
our front, I sent one, then another, and another courier to 
General Magruder. When I met the third courier he said he 
had not found General Magruder, but had delivered the mes- 
sage to Brigadier-General Griffith, who was moving by the 
path designated to make the attack. 

On returning to the field I found that the attack in front 
had ceased ; it was, therefore, too late for a single brigade to 
effect anything against the large force of the enemy, and mes- 
sengers were sent through the woods to direct General Grif- 
fith to go back. 

The heavy rain during the night of the 30th had swollen 
the Chickahominy ; it was rising when the battle of Seven 
Pines was fought, but had not reached such height as to pre- 
vent the enemy from using his bridges ; consequently, Gen- 
eral Sumner, during the engagement, brought over his corps as 
a reinforcement. He was on the north side of the river, had 
built two bridges to connect with the south side, and, though 
their coverings were loosened by the upward pressure of the 
rising water, they were not yet quite impassable. With the 
true instinct of the soldier to march upon fire when the sound 
of the battle reached him, he formed his corps and stood under 
arms waiting for an order to advance. He came too soon 
for us, and, but for his forethought and promptitude, would 



172 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

have arrived too late for his friends. It may be granted that 
his presence saved the left wing of the Federal army from defeat. 

As we had permitted the enemy to fortify before our 
attack, it would have been better to have waited another day, 
until the bridges should have been rendered impassable by 
the rise of the river. 

General Lee, at nightfall, gave instructions to General 
Smith, the senior officer on that part of the battle-field, and 
left with me to return to Richmond. 

Thus far I have only attempted to describe events on the 
extreme left of the battle-field, being that part of which I had 
personal observation ; but the larger force, and consequently 
the more serious conflict, were upon the right of the line. To 
these I will now refer. Our force there consisted of the divisions 
of Major-Generals D. H. Hill, Huger,and Longstreet, the last 
in chief command. In his report, first published in the 
" Southern Historical Society Papers," vol. iii., pp. 277, 278, 
he writes : 

" Agreeably to verbal instructions from the commanding 
general, the division of Major-General D. H. Hill was, on the 
morning of the 31st ultimo, formed at an early hour on the 
Williamsburg road as the column of attack upon the enemy's 
front on that road. The division of Major-General Huger 
was intended to make a strong flank movement around the left 
of the enemy's position, and attack him in rear of that flank. 
After waiting some six hours for these troops to get into posi- 
tion, I determined to move forward without regard to them, and 
gave orders to that effect to Major-General D. H. Hill. The 
forward movement began about two o'clock, and our skirmish- 
ers soon became engaged with those of the enemy. The entire 
division of General Hill became engaged about three o'clock, 
and drove the enemy steadily back, gaining possession of his 
abatis and part of his intrenched camp ; General Rodes, by a 
movement to the right, driving in the enemy's left. The only 
reinforcements on the field in hand were my own brigades, of 
which Anderson's, Wilcox's, and Kemper's were put in by the 
front on the Williamsburg road, and Colston's and Pryor's 
by my right flank. At the same time the decided and gallant 
attack made by the other brigades gained entire possession of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 173 

the enemy's position, with his artillery, camp-equipage, etc. 
Anderson's brigade, under Colonel Jenkins, pressing forward 
rapidly, continued to drive the enemy till nightfall. The con- 
duct of the attack was left entirely to Major-General Hill. 
The entire success of the affair is sufficient evidence of his 
ability, courage, and skill." 

On the next day, the ist of June, General Longstreet 
states that a serious attack was made on our position, and that 
it was repulsed. This refers to the works which Hill's di- 
vision had captured the day before, and which the enemy 
endeavored to retake. 

From the final report of General Longstreet, already cited, 
it appears that he was ordered to attack on the morning of 
the 31st, and he explains why the attack was postponed for six 
hours ; then he states that it was commenced by the division 
of General D. H. Hill, which drove the enemy steadily back, 
pressing forward until nightfall. The movement of Rodes' 
brigade on the right flank is credited with having contributed 
much to the dislodgement of the enemy from their abatis and 
first intrenchments. As just stated. General Longstreet re- 
ported a delay of some six hours in making this attack, because 
he was waiting for General Huger ; and he then made it suc- 
cessfully with Hill's division and some brigades from his own. 

By the official reports our aggregate loss was, " killed, 
wounded, and missing," 6,084, of which 4,85 1 were in Long- 
street's command on the right, and 1,233 iri Smith's command 
on the left. 

The enemy reported his aggregate loss at 5,739. It may 
have been less that ours, for we stormed his successive de- 
fences. 

Our success upon the right was proved by our possession 
of the enemy's works, as well as by the capture of ten pieces 
of artillery, four flags, a large amount of camp-equipage, and 
more than one thousand prisoners. 

Our aggregate of both wings was about 40,500. The 
force of the enemy confronting us may be approximated by 
taking his returns for the 20th of June and adding thereto 
his casualties on the 31st of May and ist of June, because be- 
tween the last-named date and the 20th of June no action oc- 



174 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

curred to create any material change in the number present. 
From these data, viz., the strength of Heintzelman's corps, 
i8,8io, and of Keyes' corps, 14,610, on June 20th, by adding 
their casualties of the 31st of May and ist of June — 4,5 16 — we 
deduce the strength of these two corps on the 31st of May to 
have been 37,936 as the aggregate present for duty. 

It thus appears that, at the commencement of the action 
on the 31st of May, we had a numerical superiority of about 
2,500. Adopting the same method to calculate the strength 
of Sumner's corps, we find it to have been 18,724, which 
would give the enemy, in round numbers, a force of 16,000 in 
excess of ours after General Sumner crossed the Chickahom- 
iny. Both combatants claimed the victory. 

General Lee was now in immediate command and thence- 
forward directed the movements of the army in front of 
Richmond. Laborious and exact in details as he was vigil- 
ant and comprehensive in grand strategy, a power, with which 
the public had not credited him, soon became manifest in all 
that makes an army a rapid, accurate, compact machine with 
responsive action in all its parts. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1/5 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE BATTLE OF NEW COLD HARBOR. 

When riding from the field of the battle of Seven Pines 
with General R. E. Lee on the previous day, I informed 
him that he would be assigned to the command of the army, 
vice General Johnston, wounded, and that he could make his 
preparations as soon as he reached his quarters, as I should 
send the order to him as soon as I arrived at mine. On the 
next morning he took command. During the night our 
forces on the left had fallen back from their position at the 
close of the battle, but those on the right remained in the one 
they had gained, and some combats occurred there between 
the opposing forces. The enemy proceeded further to fortify 
his position on the Chickahominy, covering his communica- 
tion with his base of supplies on York River. His left was 
on the south side of the Chickahominy, between White-Oak 
Swamp and New Bridge, and was covered by a strong in- 
trenchment, with heavy guns, and with abatis in front. His 
right wing was north of the Chickahominy, extending to Me- 
chanicsville, the approaches being defended by strong works. 

Our army was in line in front of Richmond, but without 
intrenchments. General Lee immediately commenced the 
construction of an earthwork for a battery on our left flank, 
and a line of intrenchment to the right, necessarily feeble 
because of our deficiency in tools. It seemed to be the in- 
tention of the enemy to assail Richmond by regular ap- 
proaches, which our numerical inferiority and want of engineer 
troops, as well as the deficiency of proper utensils, made it 
improbable that we should be able to resist. The day after 
General Lee assumed command, I was riding out to the army. 
I found him in consultation with a number of his general 
officers. The tone of the conversation was quite despondent. 



176 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

I rode to the front, where, after a short time, General 
Lee joined me, and entered into conversation as to what, 
under the circumstances, I thought it most advisable to do. 
I then said to him, substantially, that I knew of nothing 
better than the plan he had previously explained to me, 
which was to have been executed by General Johnston, but 
which was not carried out ; that the change of circumstances 
would make one modification necessary — that, instead of 
bringing General A. P. Hill, with his division, on the rear 
flank of the enemy, it would now be necessary to bring the 
stronger force of General T. J. Jackson from the Valley of 
the Shenandoah. So far as we were then informed, Jackson 
was hotly engaged with a force superior to his own, and, 
before he could be withdrawn, it was necessary that the enemy 
should be driven out of the Valley. For this purpose, as well 
as to mask the design of bringing Jackson's forces to make a 
junction with those of Lee, a strong division under Whiting 
was detached to go by rail to the Valley to join General 
Jackson, and, by a vigorous assault, to drive the enemy across 
the Potomac. As soon as he commenced a retreat which 
unmistakably showed that his flight would not stop within 
the limits of Virginia, Jackson was instructed to move rapidly, 
with his whole force, on the right flank of the enemy north of 
the Chickahominy. The manner in which the division was 
detached to reinforce Jackson was so open that it was not 
doubted McClellan would soon be apprised of it, and would 
probably attribute it to any other than the real motive, and 
would confirm him in his exaggerated estimate of our strength. 

By the rapidity of movement and skill with which Jack- 
son handled his troops, he, after several severe engagements, 
finally routed the enemy before the reinforcement of Whiting 
arrived; and then, on the 17th of June, proceeded, with that 
celerity which gave to his infantry its wonderful fame and 
efificiency, to execute the orders of General Lee. 

Preparatory to this campaign, a light intrenchment for in- 
fantry cover, with some works for field-guns, was constructed 
on the south side of the Chickahominy, and Whiting, with 
two brigades, was sent to reinforce Jackson in the Valley, so 
as to hasten the expulsion of the enemy, after which Jackson 



ii 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 7/ 

was to move rapidly so as to arrive in the vicinity of Ashland 
by the 24th of June, and, by striking the enemy on his right 
flank, to aid in the proposed attack. The better to insure the 
success of this movement, Lawton, who was coming with a 
brigade from Georgia to join General Lee, was directed to 
change his line of march and unite with General Jackson in 
the Valley. 

To observe the enemy, as well as to prevent him from 
learning of the approach of Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart was sent 
with a cavalry force, on June 8th, to cover the route by which 
the former was to march, and to ascertain whether the enemy 
had any defensive works or troops in position to interfere 
with the advance of those forces. He reported favorably on 
both these points, as well as with regard to the natural feat- 
ures of the country. 

Our order of battle directed Jackson to march from Ash- 
land on the 25th toward Slash Church, encamping for the night 
west of the Central Railroad ; to advance at 3 A.M. on the 
26th, and to turn Beaver-Dam Creek. General A. P. Hill was 
to cross the Chickahominy at Meadow Bridge when Jackson 
advanced beyond that point, and to move directly upon Me- 
chanicsville. As soon as the bridge there should be uncov- 
ered, Longstreet and D. H. Hill were to cross, the former to 
proceed to the support of A. P. Hill and the latter to that of 
Jackson. 

The four commands were directed to sweep down the 
north side of the Chickahominy toward the York River Rail- 
road — Jackson on the left and in advance ; Longstreet nearest 
the river and in the rear. Huger, McLaws, and Magruder, 
remaining on the south side of the Chickahominy, were or- 
dered to hold their positions as long as possible against any 
assault of the enemy ; to observe his movements, and to fol- 
low him closely if he should retreat. Stuart, with the cavalry, 
was thrown out on Jackson's left to guard his flank and give 
notice of the enemy's movements. Pendleton was directed 
to employ the reserve artillery so as to resist any advance to- 
I ward Richmond, to superintend that portion of it posted to 
I aid in the operations on the north bank, and to hold the re- 
mainder for use when needed. The whole of Jackson's com- 



178 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

mand did not arrive in time to reach the point designated on 
the 25th. He had, therefore, more distance to move on the 
26th, and he was retarded by the enemy. 

Not until 3 P.M. did A. P. Hill begin to move. Then he 
crossed the river and advanced upon Mechanicsville. After 
a sharp conflict he drove the enemy from his intrenchments, 
and forced him to take refuge in his works, on the left bank 
of Beaver Dam, about a mile distant. This position was nat- 
urally strong, the banks of the creek in front being high and 
almost perpendicular, and the approach to it being over open 
fields commanded by the fire of artillery and infantry under 
cover on the opposite side. The difficulty of crossing the 
stream had been increased by felling the fringe of woods on 
its banks and destroying the bridges. Jackson was expected 
to pass Beaver Dam above, and turn the enemy's right, so 
Hill made no direct attack. Longstreet and D. H. Hill 
crossed the Mechanicsville bridge as soon as it was uncovered 
and could be repaired, but it was late before they reached the 
north bank of the Chickahominy, An effort was made by 
two brigades to turn the enemy's left, but the troops were un- 
able in the growing darkness to overcome the obstructions, 
and were withdrawn. The engagement ceased about 9 P.M. 
Our troops retained the ground from which the foe had been 
driven. 

McClellan's position was regarded at this time as ex- 
tremely critical. If he concentrated on the left bank of the 
Chickahominy, he abandoned the attempt to capture Rich- 
mond, and risked a retreat upon the White House and York- 
town, where he had no reserves or reason to expect further 
support. If he moved to the right bank of the river, he 
risked the loss of his communications with the White House, 
whence his supplies were drawn by railroad. He would then 
have to attempt the capture of Richmond by assault, or be 
forced to open new communications by the James River, and 
move at once in that direction. There he would receive the 
support of the enemy's navy. This latter movement, it ap- 
pears, had been thought of previously, and transports had 
been sent to the James River. During the night, after the 
close of the contest last mentioned, the whole of Porter's bag- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 79 

gage was sent over to the right bank of the river, and united 
with the train that set out on the evening of the 27th for the 
James River. 

It would almost seem as if the Federal Government antici- 
pated, at this period, the failure of McClellan's expedition. 
On June 27th President Lincoln issued an order creating the 
" Army of Virginia," to consist of the forces of Fremont, in 
their Mountain Department ; of Banks, in their Shenandoah 
Department; and of McDowell, at Fredericksburg. The 
command of this army was assigned to Major-General John 
Pope. This cut off all reinforcements from McDowell to 
McClellan. 

In expectation of Jackson's arrival on the enemy's right, 
the battle was renewed at dawn, and continued with animation 
about two hours, during which the passage of the creek was 
attempted, and our troops forced their way to its banks, where 
their progress was arrested by the nature of the stream and 
the resistance encountered. They maintained their position 
while preparations were being made to cross at another point 
nearer the Chickahominy. Before these were completed, 
Jackson crossed Beaver Dam, and the enemy abandoned his 
intrenchments, and retired rapidly down the river, destroying 
a great deal of property, but leaving much in his deserted 
camps. 

After repairing the bridges over Beaver Dam, the several 
columns resumed their advance. Jackson, with whom D. H. 
Hill had united, bore to the left, in order to cut off re- 
inforcements to the enemy or intercept his retreat in that 
direction. Longstreet and A. P. Hill moved nearer the 
Chickahominy. Many prisoners were taken in their progress ; 
and the conflagration of wagons and stores marked the course 
of the retreating army. Longstreet and Hill reached the 
vicinity of New Bridge about noon. It was ascertained that 
the enemy had taken a position behind Powhite Creek, pre- 
pared to dispute our progress. He occupied a range of hills, 
with his right resting in the vicinity of McGhee's house, and 
his left near that of Dr. Gaines, on a wooded bluff, which rose 
abruptly from a deep ravine. The ravine was filled with 
sharpshooters, to whom its banks gave protection. A second 



l80 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

line of infantry was stationed on the side of the hill, over- 
looking the first, and protected by a breastwork of logs. A 
third occupied the crest, strengthened with rifle-trenches and 
crowned with artillery. The approach to this position was 
over an open plain, about a quarter of a mile wide, commanded 
by a triple line of fire, and swept by the heavy batteries south 
of the Chickahominy. In front of his centre and right the 
ground was generally open, bounded on the side of our ap- 
proach by a wood, with dense and tangled undergrowth, and 
traversed by a sluggish stream, which converted the soil into 
a deep morass. The woods on the further side of the swamp 
were occupied by sharpshooters, and trees had been felled to 
increase the difficulty of its passage, and detain our advancing 
columns under the fire of infantry massed on the slopes of the 
opposite hills and of the batteries on their crests. 

Pressing on toward the York River Railroad, A. P. Hill, 
who was in advance, reached the vicinity of New Cold Harbor 
about 2 P.M., where he encountered the foe. He immediately 
formed his line nearly parallel to the road leading from that 
place toward McGhee's house, and soon became hotly en- 
gaged. The arrival of Jackson on our left was momentarily 
expected, and it was supposed that his approach would cause 
the extension of the opposing line in that direction. Under 
this impression Longstreet was held back until this movement 
should commence. The principal part of the enemy's army 
was now on the north side of the Chickahominy. Hill's single 
division met this large force with the impetuous courage for 
which that officer and his troops were distinguished. They 
drove it back, and assailed it in its strong position on the ridge. 
The battle raged fiercely, with varying fortune, more than 
two hours. Three regiments pierced the enemy's line, and 
forced their way to the crest of the hill on his left, but were 
compelled to fall back before overwhelming numbers. This 
superior force, assisted by the fire of the batteries south of 
the Chickahominy, which played incessantly on our columns 
as they pressed through the difificulties that obstructed their 
way, caused them to recoil. Though most of the men had 
never been under fire until the day before, they were rallied, 
and in turn repelled the advance of our assailant. Some bri- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. l8l 

gades were broken, others stubbornly maintained their posi- 
tions, but it became apparent that the enemy was gradually 
gaining ground. The attack on our left being delayed by the 
length of Jackson's march and the obstacles he encountered, 
Longstreet was ordered to make a diversion in Hill's favor bj 
a feint on the enemy's left. In making this demonstration, 
the great strength of the position already described was dis- 
covered, and General Longstreet perceived that, to render the 
diversion effectual, the feint must be converted into an attack. 
He resolved to carry the heights by assault. His column was 
quickly formed near the open ground, and, as his preparations 
were completed, Jackson arrived, and his right division — that 
of Whiting — took position on the left of Longstreet. At the 
same time, D. H. Hill formed on our extreme left, and, after 
a short but bloody conflict, forced his way through the morass 
and obstructions, and drove the foe from the woods on the 
opposite side. Ewell advanced on Hill's right, and became 
hotly engaged. The arrival of these fresh troops enabled A. 
P. Hill to withdraw some of his brigades, wearied and reduced 
by their long and arduous conflict. The lines being now com- 
plete, a general advance from right to left was ordered. On 
the right, the troops moved forward with steadiness, un- 
checked by the terrible fire from the triple lines of infantry on 
the hill, and the cannon on both sides of the river, which burst 
upon them as they emerged upon the plain. The dead and 
wounded marked the line of their intrepid advance, the brave 
Texans leading, closely followed by their no less daring com- 
rades. The enemy were driven from the ravine to the first 
line of breastworks, over which our impetuous column dashed 
up to the intrenchments on the crest. These were quickly 
stormed, fourteen pieces of artillery captured, and the foe 
driven into the field beyond. Fresh troops came to his sup- 
port, and he endeavored repeatedly to rally, but in vain. He 
was forced back with great slaughter until he reached the 
woods on the banks of the Chickahominy, and night put an 
end to the pursuit. Long lines of dead and wounded marked 
each stand made by the enemy in his stubborn resistance, and 
the field over which he retreated was strewed with the slain. 
On the left, the attack was no less vigorous and successful. 



1 82 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

D. H. Hill charged across the open ground in front, one of 
his regiments having first bravely carried a battery whose fire 
enfiladed his advance. Gallantly supported by the troops on 
his right, who pressed forward with unfaltering resolution, he 
reached the crest of the ridge, and, after a sanguinary struggle, 
broke the enemy's line, captured several of his batteries, and 
drove him in confusion toward the Chickahominy, until 
darkness rendered further pursuit impossible. 

Our troops remained in undisturbed possession of the field, 
covered with the dead and wounded of our opponent ; and his 
broken forces fled to the river or wandered through the woods. 
Owing to the nature of the country, the cavalry was unable to 
participate in the general engagement. It, however, rendered 
valuable service in guarding Jackson's flank, and took a large 
number of prisoners. 

On the morning of the 28th none of the enemy remained 
in our front, north of the Chickahominy. As he might yet 
intend to give battle to preserve his communications, the 
Ninth Cavalry, supported by Ewell's division, was ordered to 
seize the York River Railroad, and General Stuart with his 
main body to co-operate. When the cavalry reached Dis- 
patch Station, the enemy retreated to the south bank of the 
Chickahominy, and burned the railroad bridge. During the 
forenoon columns of dust south of the river showed that he 
was in motion. The abandonment of the railroad and de- 
struction of the bridge proved that no further attempt would 
be made to hold that line. But, from the position the ene- 
my occupied, the roads which led toward the James River 
would also enable him to reach the lower bridges over the 
Chickahominy, and retreat down the peninsula. In the latter 
event, it was necessary that our troops should continue on 
the north bank of the river, and, until the intention of Gene- 
ral McClellan was discovered, it was deemed injudicious 
to change their disposition. Ewell was ordered to proceed 
to Bottom's Bridge, to guard that point, and the cavalry to 
watch the bridges below. No certain indications of a re- 
treat to the James River were discovered by our forces on 
the south side of the Chickahominy, and late in the afternoon 
the enemy's works were reported to be fully manned. The 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 183 

strength of these fortifications prevented Generals Huger and 
Magruder from discovering what was passing in their front. 
Below the enemy's works the country was densely wooded 
and intersected by swamps, concealing his movements and 
precluding reconnaissances except by the regular roads, all of 
which were strongly guarded. The bridges over the Chicka- 
hominy in rear of the enemy were destroyed, and their recon- 
struction by us was impracticable in the presence of his whole 
army and powerful batteries. We were, therefore, compelled 
to wait until his purpose should be developed. Generals 
Huger and Magruder were again directed to pursue the foe 
vigorously should they discover that he was retreating. Dur- 
ing the afternoon of the 28th the signs were suggestive of a 
general movement, and, no indications of his approach to the 
lower bridges of the Chickahominy having been discovered by 
the pickets in observation at those points, it became inferable 
that General McCIellan was about to retreat to the James 
River. 



1 84 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE BATTLES OF FRAZIER'S FARM AND MALVERN HILL. 

During the night I visited the several commands along 
the intrenchment on the south side of the Chickahominy. 
General Huger's was on the right, General McLaws' in the 
centre, and General Magruder's on the left. The enemy did 
move before morning, and the fact of the works having been 
evacuated was first learned by an officer on the north side of 
the river, who, the next morning, the 29th, about sunrise, was 
examining their works by the aid of a field-glass. 

Longstreet and A, P. Hill were promptly ordered to re- 
cross the Chickahominy at New Bridge, and move by the 
Darbytown and Long Bridge roads. General Lee, having 
sent his engineer, Captain Meade, to examine the condition of 
the abandoned works, came to the south side of the Chicka- 
hominy to unite his command and direct its movements. 

Magruder and Huger found the whole line of works 
deserted, and large quantities of military stores of every de- 
scription abandoned or destroyed. They were immediately 
ordered in pursuit. Jackson was directed to cross the " Grape- 
vine " Bridge, and move down the south side of the Chicka- 
hominy. Magruder reached the vicinity of Savage Station, 
where he came upon the rear-guard of the retreating army. 
Being informed that it was advancing, he halted and sent for 
reinforcements. Two brigades of Huger's division were or- 
dered to his support, but were subsequently withdrawn, it 
having been ascertained that the force in Magruder's front was 
merely covering the retreat of the main body. 

Jackson's route led to the flank and rear of Savage Station, 
but he was delayed by the necessity of reconstructing the 
" Grapevine " Bridge. 

Late in the afternoon Magruder attacked the enemy. A 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 85 

severe action ensued, and continued about two hours, when 
night put an end to the conflict. The troops displayed great 
gallantry, and inflicted heavy loss ; but, owing to the lateness 
of the hour and the small force engaged, the result was not 
decisive, and the enemy continued his retreat under cover of 
night, leaving several hundred prisoners, with his dead and 
wounded, in our hands. Our loss was small in numbers but 
great in value. 

At Savage Station were found about 2,500 men in hos- 
pital, and a large amount of property. Stores of much value 
had been destroyed, including the necessary medical supplies 
for the sick and wounded. The night was so dark that, before 
the battle ended, it was only by challenging that on several 
occasions it was determined whether the troops in front were 
friends or foes. It was therefore deemed unadvisable to 
attempt immediate pursuit. 

Our troops slept upon their arms, and in the morning it 
was found that the enemy had retreated during the night ; 
and, by the time thus gained, he was enabled to cross the 
White-Oak Creek, and destroy the bridge. 

Early on the 30th Jackson reached Savage Station. As 
he advanced he captured so many prisoners and collected so 
large a number of arms, that two regiments had to be de- 
tached for their security. His progress at White-Oak Swamp 
was checked by the enemy, who occupied the opposite side, 
and obstinately resisted the rebuilding of the bridge. 

Longstreet and A. P. Hill, continuing their advance, on 
the 30th came upon the foe strongly posted near the inter- 
section of the Long Bridge and Charles City roads, at the 
place known in the military reports as Frazier's Farm. 

Huger's route led to the right of this position, Jackson's 
to the rear, and the arrival of their commands was awaited to 
begin the attack. 

On the 29th General Holmes had crossed from the south 
side of the James River, and, on the 30th, was reinforced by 
a detachment of General Wise's brigade. He moved down 
the river road, with a view to gain, near to Malvern Hill, a 
position which would command the supposed route of the 
retreating army. 



1 86 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The enemy, instead of being a straggling mass moving 
toward the James River, as had been reported, were found 
halted between West's house and Malvern Hill on ground 
commanding Holmes' position, with an open field between 
them. 

Holmes ordered his chief of artillery to commence firing 
upon the enemy's infantry, which immediately gave way ; but 
a heavy fire of twenty-five or thirty guns promptly replied to 
our battery, and formed, with the gunboats, a cross-fire upon 
General Holmes' command. The numerical superiority of 
the opposing force, both in infantry and artillery, would have 
made it worse than useless to attempt an assault unless pre- 
viously reinforced, and, as no reinforcements arrived. Holmes, 
about an hour after nightfall, withdrew to a point somewhat 
in advance of the one he held in the morning. 

General Huger reported that his progress was delayed by 
trees which his opponent had felled across the Williamsburg 
road. In the afternoon, after passing the obstructions and 
driving off the men who were still cutting down trees, they 
came upon an open field (P. Williams'), where they were as- 
sailed by a battery of rifled guns. The artillery was brought 
up, and replied to the fire. In the meantime a column of 
infantry was moved to the right, so as to turn the battery, and 
the combat was ended. The report of this firing was heard 
at Frazier's Farm, and erroneously supposed to indicate the 
near approach of Huger's column, and, it has been frequently 
stated, induced Longstreet to open fire with some of his bat- 
teries as notice to General Huger where our troops were, and 
that thus the engagement was brought on. General A. P. 
Hill, who was in front, and had made the dispositions of our 
troops while hopefully waiting for the arrival of Jackson and 
Huger, states that the fight commenced by fire from the en- 
emy's artillery, which swept down the road. 

The detention of Huger, and the failure of Jackson to force 
a passage of the White-Oak Swamp, left Longstreet and Hill, 
without the expected support, to maintain the unequal con- 
flict as best they might. The superiority of numbers and the 
advantage of position were on the side of the enemy. The 
battle raged furiously until 9 P.M. By that time the enemy 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 87 

had been driven with great slaughter from every position but 
one, which he maintained until he was enabled to withdraw 
under cover of darkness. At the close of the struggle nearly 
the entire field remained in our possession, covered with the 
enemy's dead and wounded. Many prisoners, including a 
general of division, were captured, and several batteries and 
some thousands of small-arms were taken. 

After this engagement, Magruder, who had been ordered 
to go to the support of Holmes, was recalled, to relieve the 
troops of Longstreet and Hill. He arrived during the night, 
with the troops of his command much fatigued by the long, 
hot march. 

In the battle of Frazier's Farm the troops of Longstreet 
and Hill, though disappointed in the expectation of support, 
and contending against superior numbers advantageously post- 
ed, made their attack successful by the most heroic courage 
and unfaltering determination. 

The current of the battle, which was then setting against us, 
was reversed. That more important consequences would have 
followed had Huger and Jackson, or either of them, arrived 
in time to take part in the conflict, is unquestionable; and 
there is little hazard in saying that the army of McClellan 
would have been riven in twain, beaten in detail, and could 
never, as an organized body, have reached the James River. 

Our troops slept on the battle-field they had that day won, 
and couriers were sent in the night with instructions to hasten 
the march of the troops who had been expected during the 
day. 

Valor less true or devotion to their cause less sincere than 
that which pervaded our army and sustained its commanders 
would, in this hour of thinned ranks and physical exhaustion, 
have thougliJt of the expedient of retreat; but no such resort 
was contemplated. To bring up reinforcements and attack 
again was alike the expectation and the wish. 

This battle was in many respects one of the most remark- 
able of the war. Here occurred on several occasions the 
capture of batteries by the impetuous charge of our infantry, 
defying the canister and grape which ploughed through their 
ranks, and many hand-to-hand conflicts, where bayonet wounds 



1 88 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

were freely given and received, and men fought with clubbed 
muskets in the life-and-death encounter. 

The estimated strength of the enemy was double our own, 
and he had the advantage of being in position. From both 
causes it necessarily resulted that our loss was very heavy. 

During the night those who fought us at Frazier's Farm 
fell back to the stronger position of Malvern Hill, and by a 
night march the force which had detained Jackson at White- 
Oak Swamp effected a junction with the other portion of the 
enemy. 

Early on the ist of July Jackson reached the battle-field 
of the previous day, having forced the passage of White-Oak 
Swamp, where he captured some artillery and a number of 
prisoners. He was directed to follow the route of the enemy's 
retreat, but soon found him in position on a high ridge in 
front of Malvern Hill. Here, on a line of great natural 
strength, he had posted his powerful artillery, supported by 
his large force of infantry, covered by hastily constructed 
intrenchments. His left rested near Crew's house and his 
right near Binford's. Immediately in his front the ground 
was open, varying in width from a quarter to half a mile, and, 
sloping gradually from the crest, was completely swept by the 
fire of his infantry and artillery. To reach this open ground 
our troops had to advance through a broken and thickly 
Avooded country, traversed nearly throughout its whole extent 
by a swamp passable at only a few places, and difificult at 
these. The whole was within range of the batteries on the 
heights and the gunboats in the river, under whose incessant 
fire our movements had to be executed. 

Jackson formed his line with Whiting's division on his left 
and D. H. Hill's on his right, one of Ewell's brigades occupy- 
ing the interval. The rest of Ewell's and Jackson's own 
division were held in reserve. Magruder was directed to take 
position on Jackson's right, but before his arrival two of 
Huger's brigades came up, and were placed next to Hill. 
Magruder subsequently formed on the right of these brigades, 
which, with a third of Huger's, were placed under his com- 
mand. Longstreet and A. P. Hill were held in reserve, and 
took no part in the engagement. Owing to ignorance of the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 89 

country, the dense forests impeding necessary communica- 
tions, and the extreme difficulty of the ground, the whole line 
was not formed until a late hour in the afternoon. The 
obstacles presented by the woods and swamp made it im- 
practicable to bring up a sufficient amount of artillery to 
oppose successfully the extraordinary force of that arm em- 
ployed by the enemy, while the field itself afforded us few 
positions favorable for its use, and none for its proper concen- 
tration. 

Orders were issued for a general advance at a given signal, 
but the causes referred to prevented a proper concert of action 
among the troops. D. H, Hill pressed forward across the 
open field, and engaged the enemy gallantly, breaking and 
driving back his first line ; but, a simultaneous advance of the 
other troops not taking place, he found himself unable to 
maintain the ground he had gained against the overwhelming 
numbers and numerous batteries opposed to him. Jackson 
sent to his support his own division and that part of Ewell's 
which was in reserve ; but, owing to the increasing darkness 
and intricacy of the forest and swamp, they did not arrive in 
time to render the desired assistance. Hill was therefore 
compelled to abandon part of the ground he had gained, after 
suffering severe loss and inflicting heavy damage. 

On the right the attack was gallantly made by Huger's and 
Magruder's commands. Two brigades of the former com- 
menced the action, the other two were subsequently sent to 
the support of Magruder and Hill. Several determined efforts 
were made to storm the hill at Crew's house. The brigade 
advanced bravely across the open field, raked by the fire of a 
hundred cannon and the musketry of large bodies of infantry. 
Some were broken and gave way ; others approached close to 
the guns, driving back the infantry, compelling the advance 
batteries to retire to escape capture, and mingling their dead 
with those of the enemy. For want of co-operation by the 
attacking columns, their assaults were too weak to break the 
enemy's line ; and, after struggling gallantly, sustaining and 
inflicting great loss, they were compelled successively to re- 
tire. Night was approaching when the attack began, and it 
soon became difficult to distinguish friend from foe. The 



190 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

firing continued until after 9 P.M., but no decided result was 
gained. 

Part of our troops were withdrawn to their original posi- 
tions ; others remained in the open field ; and some rested 
within a hundred yards of the batteries that had been so bravely 
but vainly assailed. The lateness of the hour at which the at- 
tack necessarily began gave the foe the full advantage of his 
superior position, and augmented the natural difficulties of 
our own. 

At the cessation of firing, several fragments of different 
commands were lying down and holding their ground within a 
short distance of the enemy's line, and, as soon as the fighting 
ceased, an informal truce was established by common consent. 
Numerous parties from both armies, with lanterns and litters, 
wandered over the field seeking for the wounded, whose groans 
and calls on all sides could not fail to move with pity the 
hearts of friend and foe. 

The morning dawned with heavy rain, and the enemy's 
position was seen to have been entirely deserted. The ground 
was covered with his dead and wounded, and his route exhib- 
ited evidence of a precipitate retreat. To the fatigue of hard 
marches and successive battles, enough to have disqualified our 
troops for rapid pursuit, was added the discomfort of being 
thoroughly wet and chilled by rain. 

The foe had silently withdrawn in the night by a route 
which had been unknown to us, but which was the most direct 
road to Harrison's Landing, and he had so many hours the 
start, that, among the general of^cers who expressed to me 
their opinion, there was but one who thought it was possible 
to pursue effectively. That was General T. J. Jackson, who 
quietly said, " They have not all got away if we go immedi- 
ately after them." 

During the pursuit, which has just been described, the cav- 
alry of our army had been absent, having been detached on a 
service which was reported as follows: After seizing the York 
River Railroad, on June 28th, and driving the enemy across 
the Chickahominy, the force under General Stuart proceeded 
down the railroad to ascertain if there was any movement of 
the enemy in that direction. He encountered but little oppo- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. I91 

sition, and reached the vicinity of the White House on the 
29th. On his approach the enemy destroyed the greater 
part of the immense stores accumulated at that depot, and 
retreated toward Fortress Monroe, With one gun and some 
dismounted men General Stuart drove off a gunboat, which 
lay near the White House, and rescued a large amount of 
property, including more than ten thousand stand of small- 
arms, partially burned. General Stuart describes his march 
down the enemy's line of communication with the York River 
as one in which he was but feebly resisted. He says : 

" We advanced until, coming in view of the White House 
(a former plantation residence of General George Washing- 
ton), at a distance of a quarter of a mile, a large gunboat was 
discovered lying at the landing. ... I was convinced 
that a few bold sharpshooters could compel the gunboat to 
leave. I accordingly ordered down about seventy-five, partly 
of the First and Fourth Virginia Cavalry, and partly of the Jeff 
Davis Legion, armed with the rifled carbines. They advanced 
on this monster, so terrible to our fancy, and a body of sharp- 
shooters was sent ashore from the boat to meet them. . . . 
To save time I ordered up the howitzer, a few shells from 
which, fired with great accuracy, and bursting directly over 
her decks, caused an instantaneous withdrawal of the sharp- 
shooters, and a precipitous flight under headway of steam 
down the river. . . . An opportunity was here offered for 
observing the deceitfulness of the enemy's pretended reverence 
for everything associated with the name of Washington — for 
the dwelling-house was burned to the ground, not a vestige 
left except what told of desolation and vandalism. 

" Nine large barges, laden with stores, were on fire as we 
approached ; immense numbers of tents, wagons, and cars in 
long trains, loaded, and five locomotives ; a number of forges ; 
quantities of every species of quartermaster's stores and prop- 
erty, making a total of many millions of dollars — all more or 
less destroyed." 

Leaving one squadron at the White House, he returned 
to guard the lower bridges of the Chickahominy. On the 
30th he was directed to recross and co-operate with Jackson. 
After a long march he reached the rear of the enemy, at Mai- 



192 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

vern Hill, on the night of July ist, at the close of the engage- 
ment. 

On the 2d of July the pursuit was commenced, the cavalry 
under Stuart in advance. It appears, from the testimony 
taken before the United States Congressional Committee on 
the Conduct of the War, that it was not until July 3d that 
the heights which overlooked the encampment of the retreat- 
ing army were occupied ; and, from the manuscript notes on 
the war by General J. E. B. Stuart, we learn that he easily 
gained and took possession of the heights, and with his light 
howitzer opened fire upon the enemy's camp, producing great 
commotion. This was described by the veteran soldier, Gen- 
eral Casey, of the United States Army, thus : 

"The enemy had come down with some artillery upon our 
army massed together on the river, the heights commanding 
the position not being in our possession. Had the enemy 
come down and taken possession of those heights with a force 
of twenty or thirty thousand men, they would, in my opinion, 
have taken the whole of our army except that small portion 
of it that might have got off on the transports." 

General Lee was not a man of hesitation. Longstreet 
and Jackson were ordered to advance, but a violent storm 
which prevailed throughout the day greatly retarded their 
progress. The enemy, harassed and closely followed by the 
cavalry, succeeded in gaining Westover, on the James River, 
and the protection of his gunboats. His position was one of 
great natural and artificial strength, after the heights were 
occupied and intrenched. It was flanked on each side by a 
creek, and the approach in front was commanded by the 
heavy guns of his shipping, as well as by those mounted in 
his intrenchments. Under these circumstances it was deemed 
inexpedient to attack him ; and, in view of the condition of 
our troops, who had been marching and fighting almost in- 
cessantly for seven days, under the most trying circumstances, 
it was determined to withdraw, in order to afford to them the 
repose of which they stood so much in need. 

Several days were spent in collecting arms and other prop- 
erty abandoned by the enemy, and, in the meantime, some 
artillery and cavalry were sent below Westover to annoy his 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 1 93 

transports. On July 8th our army returned to the vicinity of 
Richmond. 

The siege of Richmond was raised, and the object of a 
campaign which had been prosecuted after months of prepara- 
tion, at an enormous expenditure of men and monev, was 
completely frustrated.* 

More than ten thousand prisoners, including ofificers of 
rank, fifty-two pieces of artillery, and upward of thirty- five 
thousand stand of small-arms were captured. The stores and 
supplies of every description which fell into our hands were 
great in amount and value, but small in comparison with 
those destroyed by the enemy. His losses in the battle ex- 
ceeded our own, as attested by the thousands of dead and 
wounded left on every field, while his subsequent inaction 
shows in what condition the survivors reached the protection 
of the gunboats. 

In the archive ofifice of the War Department in Washing- 
ton there are on file some of the field and monthly returns of 
the strength of the Army of Northern Virginia. These are 
the original papers which were taken from Richmond. They 
furnish an accurate statement of the number of men in that 
army at the periods named. They were not made public at 
the time, as I did not think it judicious to inform the enemy 
of the numerical weakness of our forces. The following state- 
ments have been taken from those papers by Major Walter 
H. Taylor, of the staff of General Lee, who supervised for 
several years the preparation of the original returns. 

A statement of the strength of the troops under General 
Johnston shows that on May 21, 1862, he had present for 
duty 53,688 effective men. 

Major Taylor, in his work,+ states : 

" In addition to the troops above enumerated as the 
strength of General Johnston on May 21, 1862, there w^ere two 
brigades subject to his orders then stationed in the vicinity of 
Hanover Junction, one under the command of General J. R. 

* Reports of Generals Robert E. Lee, Pendleton, A- R Hill, Huger, Alexan- 
der, and Major W. H. Taylor, in his Four Years with Lee, have been drawn 
upon for the foregoing. 

f Four Years with General Lee. 
13 



194 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Anderson, and the other under the command of General 
Branch ; they were subsequently incorporated into the divis- 
ion of General A. P. Hill, and participated in the battles 
around Richmond." 

He had no official data by which to determine their 
numbers, but, from careful estimates and conference with 
General Anderson, he estimated the strength of the two at 
4,000 effectives. 

Subsequent to the date of the return of the army around 
Richmond, heretofore given, but previous to the battle of 
Seven Pines, General Johnston was reinforced by General 
Huger's division of three brigades. The total strength of 
these three brigades, according to the " Reports of the Opera- 
tions of the Army of Northern Virginia," was 5,008 effectives. 
Taylor says : 

" If the strength of these five be added to the return of 
May 2 1st, we shall have sixty-two thousand six hundred and 
ninety-six (62,696) as the effective strength of the army under 
General Johnston on May 31, 1862, 

" Deduct the losses sustained in the battle of Seven Pines 
as shown by the official reports of casualties, say 6,084, and 
we have 56,612 as the effective strength of the army when 
General Lee assumed command." 

It appears from the official returns of the Army of the 
Potomac that on June 20th General McClellan had present 
for duty 115,102 men. It is stated that McClellan reached 
the James River with " between 85,000 and 90,000 men," and 
that his loss in the seven days' battles was 15,249; this would 
make his army 105,000 strong at the commencement of the 
battles.* Probably General Dix's corps of 9,277 men, stationed 
at Fortress Monroe, is not included in this last statement. 

* Svvinton's History of the Army of the Potomac. 



'M 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 195 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE USURPATIONS. 

At the beginning of 1862 it became evident that it was 
the purpose of the United States Government to assail us in 
every manner, at every point, and with every engine of de- 
struction. While the Executive was preparing immense ar- 
mies, iron-clad fleets, and huge instruments of war with which 
to invade our territory and destroy our citizens, the aid of 
Congress was invoked by usurpation to legislate the subver- 
sion of our social institutions and to give the form of legality 
to the plunder of a frenzied soldiery. 

Congress had no sooner assembled than it brought forward 
the doctrine that the Government of the United States was 
engaged in a struggle for its existence, and could therefore re- 
sort to any measure which a case of self-defence could justify. 
It next declared that our institution of slavery was the cause 
of all the troubles of the country, and that therefore the whole 
power of the Government must be so directed as to remove 
the cause. 

The authors of the aggressions which had disturbed the 
harmony of the Union had lately acquired power on a sec- 
tional basis, and were eager for the spoils of their sectional 
victory. To conceal their real motive and artfully to appeal 
to the prejudice of foreigners, they declared that slavery was 
the cause of the troubles of the country and of the " rebellion " 
which they were engaged in suppressing. In his inaugural 
address President Lincoln said : 

'' I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in States where it exists. I believe I 
have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." 

The leader of the Abolition party in Congress, Senator 
Sumner, in February, 1861, said ; 



i 



196 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 










S^> "^^ 



fit 




" I take this occasion to declare most explicitly that I do 
not think that Congress has any right to interfere with sla- 
very in a State." 

This principle had regulated all the legislation of Congress 
from the first session in 1789 down to the session of the 37th 
Congress, beginning July 4, 1S61. 

Yet, a few months after the inaugural address above quoted. 

Congress began to legislate for the abolition of slaveiy. No 

change had been made in the Constitution ; not a word or 

letter of that instrument had been changed since the pos- 

W session of the power was disclaimed ; yet, after July 4, 1861, it 

2; was asserted by the majority in Congress that the Govern- 

«^ment had power to interfere with slavery in the States. 

^ Whence came the change ? It was wrought by the same plea 

X that tyranny has ever employed against liberty and justice, 

'^j-B- the time-worn excuse of usurpation — necessity ; an excuse 

'*^ T 5 quite sure to be valid, as the usurper claims to be the sole 

'^ ' ^ A J"^S^ °^ ^^^ necessity. 

Under this plea a system of legislation was devised which 
embraced the following usurpations: confiscation of private 
property ; prohibition of the extension of slavery in the Ter- 
ritories ; emancipation of slaves in all places under the ex- 
clusive control of the Government of the United States ; 
emancipation with compensation in the border States and 
in the District of Columbia; practical emancipation to follow 
the progress of the armies ; all restraints to be removed from 
the slaves, so that they could go free whenever they pleased, 
and be fed and clothed, when destitute, at the expense of the 
United States — literally, to become the wards of the Govern- 
ment. 

For none of these exercises of power was there the least 
warrant in the Constitution, while some of the laws passed 
were in direct violation of the explicit text of that instru- 
ment. 

Perhaps it may be urged that the Confederate States were 
out of the Union and beyond the protection of the provisions 
of the Constitution. This objection cannot be admitted in 
extenuation of the usurpations of Congress and the Executive; 
for there was, thus far, no act of Congress or proclamation of 



II 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



197 



the President in existence showing "that either of them re- 
garded the Confederate States in any other position than a^SI 
States within the Union, whose citizens were subject to all 
the penalties contained in the Constitution, and therefore en- 
titled to the benefit of all its provisions for their protection. 
Unhesitatingly it may be said that all the conduct of the 
Confederate States pertaining to the war consisted in just 
efforts to preserve to themselves and their posterity rights and 
protections guaranteed to them in the Constitution of the 
United States, and that the actions of the Federal Govern- 
ment consisted in efforts to suppress those rights, destroy those 
protections, and subjugate us into compliance with its arbi- 
trary will ; and that this conduct on their part involved the 
subversion of the Constitution and the destruction of the fun- 
damental principles of liberty. Who is the criminal ? Let 
posterity answer. 



5 



iJLJ'^-fU 



198 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



^. 



^3 



CHAPTER XXX. 

FEDERAL EXECUTIVE USURPATIONS. 

Simultaneously with the Federal legislative usurpa- 
tions just noted there was a series of usurpations in which the 
''\ President of the United States was the principal actor. On 

^..-'■'; March 2, 1862, he began a direct and unconstitutional inter- 

ference with slavery by sending a message to Congress recom- 
mending the adoption of a resolution which should declare 
that the United States ought to co-operate with any State 
^ ^j - which might adopt the gradual abolition of slavery by giving 
V r '^ V pecuniary aid to such State. It was an artful scheme to 
create dissensions in the Slave States. In every previous 
declaration the President had said that he did not contemplate 
^ .s^ ^i' ' C' ^^^y interference with slavery within the States. The resolu- 
tion, although unconstitutional, was passed by large majorities. 

Fortified by Congressional and public approval of the plea 
of necessity, which superseded all theories of constitutional 
obligation, the wheels of revolution were soon made to move 
with accelerated velocity in their destructive work. 

On the 25th of April, 1862, Major-General Hunter issued 
an order declaring the States of Georgia, Florida, and South 
Carolina under martial law. On the 9th of May the same 
ofificer issued another order declaring " the persons held as 
slaves in those States to be forever free." 

President Lincoln, ten days afterward, issued a proclamation 
declaring the order to be void, and reserving to himself the 
decision of the question whether it be competent for the 
President, as commander-in-chief, to declare the slaves of 
any State free. 

Meanwhile the education of the people of the North up 
to the point of making the abolition of slavery by force of 
arms for the sake of the Union steadily progressed. The so- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 199 

called pressure upon the President was organized for a final 
onset. The governors of fifteen States united in a request 
that 300,000 more men should be called out to fill up the re- 
duced ranks of the Federal army; and it was done. The anti- 
slavery press then entered the arena, and severely criticised 
the policy of the President with regard to the slaves of rebels. ^ 

Another call for 300,000 men was made ; but enlistments J'-^-btv^ 
were slow, so that most liberal bounties and threats of a'*Ho^^'^' 
draft were required. The champions of emancipation assert- -, ■ ' 
ed that the reluctance of the people to enter the army was , ,. , 
caused by the policy of the Government in not adopting bold \r,jtj^.J^\ 
emancipation measures. They insisted that slavery in the ^ 
seceded States should be treated as a military question ; 
that it constituted nearly all the subsistence which supported 
the Southern men in arms, dug their trenches, and built their 
fortifications. 

At last, on September 22, 1862, the President yielded to /^« ft -tifW 
the " pressure," and issued a preliminary proclamation of ^ ^ 
emancipation. It declared that, at the next session of Con- V^x^^ ^' 
gress, the proposition for emancipation in the border slave- 
holding States would be again recommended ; and that, on 
January i, 1863, "all persons held as slaves within an}' State 
or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, hence- 
forward, and forever free." 

On January ist another proclamation was issued by the 
President of the United States, declaring the emancipation to 
be absolute within the Confederate States, with the exception 
of a few districts. Both before and during the war between 
the States Mr. Lincoln and his advisers had solemnly and 
repeatedly disavowed their intention or desire to interfere with 
slavery in the States, and asserted that the Constitution gave 
them no power to interfere with it. The same principle was 
avowed in the diplomatic correspondence of the United States. 
Whence, then, was authority found to do an act for which not 
only was there no authority to be found in the Constitution, 
but which the Constitution expressly forbids ? Mr. Lincoln's 
proclamation closed with these words : 

" And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of 



200 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, 
I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gra- 
cious favor of Ahnighty God." 

Let us test the existence of the military necessity here 
spoken of by a few facts. 

The white male population of the Northern States was 
then 13,690,364. The white male population of the Confeder- 
ate States was 5,449,463. The United States had- called into 
the field a force exceeding one million men. The number of 
troops which the Confederate Government had then under 
arms was less than four hundred thousand. The United 
States Government had a navy that was only third in rank in 
the world. The Confederate Government had a navy which 
at that time consisted of a single sm.all shi]3 on the ocean. 
The people of the United States had a commerce afloat all 
over the world. The people of the Confederate States had 
not a single port open to commerce. The people of the 
United States were the rivals of the greatest nations in all 
kinds of manufactures. The people of the Confederate States 
had few manufactures, and those were of articles of inferior 
importance. The Government of the United States possessed 
the treasury of a Union of eighty years, with its vast resources. 
The Confederate States had to create a treasury by the devel- 
opment of financial resources. The representatives and ambas- 
sadors of the United States were welcomed at every port of 
the world. The representatives of the Confederate States 
were not recognized anywhere. 

Thus the consummation of the original anti-slavery pur- • 
poses was now reached ; but even that achievement was attend- 
ed with disunion, bloodshed, and internecine war, followed by ip^ 
such foul progeny as usurpation breeds. £iM%^ Ci 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 201 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

CONFEDERATE NAVAL OPERATIONS. 

The grades of officers in the Confederate navy consisted 
of admirals, captains, commanders, surgeons, lieutenants, and 
midshipmen. Of officers at the close of the first year there 
were one admiral, twelve captains, thirty commanders, and 
one hundred and twelve first and second lieutenants. All 
the principal officers had belonged to the United States navy. 
Owing to the limited number of vessels afloat, many of these 
officers were employed on shore duties. 

The vessels of the navy may be reduced to two classes : 
those intended for river and harbor defence, as ironclads, 
rams, floating batteries, or river steamboats transformed into 
gunboats ; and sea-going steamers of moderate size, some of 
them of great speed, but, not having been designed for war 
purposes, all unsuited for a powerful armament that could 
contend successfully with ships of war. 

After Virginia had seceded from the United States, but 
before she acceded to the Confederate States — viz., on the 19th 
of April, 1861 — General Taliaferro, in command of Virginia's 
forces, arrived at Norfolk. Commander McCauley, United 
States navy, and commandant of the navy-yard, held a confer- 
ence with General Taliaferro, the result of which was an agree- 
ment " that none of the vessels should be removed, nor a shot 
fired except in self-defence." The excitement which had ex- 
isted in the town was quieted by the announcement of this ar- 
rangement ; but it was soon ascertained that the Geriuantoivn 
and Merrimac, frigates in the port, had been scuttled, and the 
former otherwise injured. About midnight a fire was start- 
ed in the navy-yard, which continued to increase, involving 
the destruction of the ship-houses, a ship of the line, and 
the unfinished frame of another. Several frigates, in addition 



202 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

to those mentioned, had been scuttled and sunk, and other 
property destroyed to an amount estimated at several million 
dollars. The Pawnee, which arrived on the 19th, had been 
kept under steam, and, taking the Cumberland in tow, retired 
down the harbor, freighted with a great portion of valuable 
munitions, and the commandant and other officers of the yard. 
In the haste and secrecy of the conflagation a large amount 
of material remained uninjured. The Merrimac, a beautiful 
frigate, in the yard for repairs, was raised by the Virginians, 
and the work immediately commenced to convert her hull 
into an iron-clad vessel. Two-inch plates were prepared, and 
she was covered with a double-inclined roof of four inches 
thickness. This armor, though not sufficiently thick to resist 
direct shot, sufficed to protect against a glancing ball, and was 
as heavy as was consistent with the handling of the ship. 

Her armament consisted of ten guns, four single-banded 
Brooke rifles, and six 9-inch Dahlgren shell-guns. Two of the 
rifles, bow and stern pivots, were 7-inch ; the other two were 
6j-\-inch, one on each broadside. The 9-inch gun on each 
side nearest the furnaces was fitted for firing hot shot. The 
work of construction was prosecuted with all haste, the arma- 
ment and crew were put on board, and the vessel started on 
her trial trip. She was our first ironclad ; her model was an 
experiment, and many doubted its success. Her commander, 
Captain (afterward Admiral) Franklin Buchanan, with the 
wisdom of age and the experience of sea-service from his 
boyhood, combined the daring and enterprise of youth ; and 
with him was Lieutenant Catesby Ap R. Jones, who had 
been specially in charge of the battery, and otherwise thor- 
oughly acquainted with the ship. His high qualifications as 
an ordnance officer were well known in the " old navy," and 
he was soon to exhibit a like ability as a seaman in battle. 

Now that the first Confederate ironclad was afloat the 
stars and bars were given to the breeze, and she was new- 
christened the Virginia. She was joined by the Patrick 
Henry, six guns ; the Jamestown, two guns ; the Beaufort, 
one gun ; the Raleigh, one gun ; and the Teaser, one gun. 

The enemy's fleet in Hampton Roads consisted of the 
Cumberlatid, twenty-four guns ; Congress, fifty guns ; St. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 203 

Lawrence, fifty guns ; steam- frigates Minnesota and Roanoke, 
forty guns each. The relative force was as twenty-one guns 
to two hundred and four, not counting the small steamers of 
the enemy, though they had heavier armament than the small 
vessels of our fleet which have been enumerated. The Cum- 
berland and the Congress lay off Newport News ; the other 
vessels were anchored about nine miles eastward, near Fortress 
Monroe. Strong shore batteries and several small steamers, 
armed with heavy rifled guns, protected the frigates Cumber- 
land and Congress. 

Buchanan no doubt felt the inspiration of a sailor when 
his vessel bears him from the land, and the excitement of a 
hero at the prospect of battle, and thus we may understand 
why the trial trip was at once converted into a determined 
attack upon the enemy. After the plan of the Virginia had 
been decided upon, the work of her construction was pushed 
with all possible haste. Her armament was on board, and 
she was taken out of the dock while the workmen were still 
employed upon her — indeed, the last of them were put ashore 
after she was started on her experimental trip. Few men 
conscious, as flag-officer Buchanan was, of the defects of his 
vessel would have dared such unequal conflict. Slowly — 
about five knots an hour — he steamed down to the Roads. 
The Cumberland and Congress, seeing the Virginia approach, 
prepared for action, and from the flag-ship Roanoke signals 
were given to the Alinnesota and St. Laivrcncc to advance. 
The Cumberland had swung so as to give her full broad- 
side to the Virginia, which silently and without any exhi- 
bition of her crew, moved steadily forward. The shot from 
the Cumberland fell thick upon her plated roof, but re- 
bounded, harmless as hailstones. At last the prow of the 
Virginia struck the Cumberland ]\iiS\. forward of her starboard 
fore-chains. A dull, heavy thud was heard, but so little force 
was given to the Virginia that the engineer hesitated about 
backing her. It was soon seen, however, that a gaping breach 
had been made in the Cumberland, and that the sea was rush- 
ing madly in. She reeled; and while the waves ingulfed her, 
her crew gallantly stood to their guns and vainly continued 
their fire. She went down in nine fathoms of water, with 



204 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

at least one hundred of her gallant crew, her pennant still fly- 
ing from her mast-head. 

The Virginia then ran up stream a short distance, in order 
to turn and have sufificient space to get headway, and come 
down on the Congress. The enemy, both ashore and afloat, 
supposing that she had retired at the sight of the vessels 
approaching to attack her, cheered loudly. But when she 
turned to descend upon the Congress, as she had on the 
Cumberland, the Congress slipped her cables and ran ashore, 
bows on. The Virginia took position as near as the depth 
of water would permit, and opened upon her a raking fire. 
The Mimicsota was fast aground about a mile and a half 
below. The Roanoke and St. Lazvre^ice retired toward the 
fort. The shore batteries kept up their fire on the Virginia, 
as did also the Mi?inesota, at long range, and quite ineffectual- 
ly. The Congress, being aground, could but feebly reply. 
Several of our smaller vessels came up and joined the Vir- 
ginia, and the combined fire was fearfully destructive to the 
Congress. Her commander was killed, and soon her colors 
were struck, and the white flag appeared both at the main and 
spanker gaff. The Beaufort and the Raleigh, tugs which had 
accompanied the Virginia, were ordered to the Congress to 
receive the surrender. The flag of the ship and the sword of 
its then commander were delivered to Lieutenant Parker, by 
whom they were subsequently sent to the Navy Department 
at Richmond. Other officers delivered their swords in token 
of surrender, and entreated that they might return to assist 
in getting their wounded out of the ship. The permission 
was granted to the officers, and they then took advantage 
of the clemency shown them to make their escape. In the 
meantime the shore batteries fired upon the tugs, and com- 
pelled them to retire. By this fire five of their own men, 
our prisoners, were wounded. Flag-ofificer Buchanan had 
stopped the firing upon the Congress when she struck her 
flag and ran up the white flag. Lieutenant Jones, referring to 
the Congress, wrote : "But she fired upon us with the white 
flag flying, wounding Lieutenant Minor and several of our 
men. We again opened fire upon her, and she is now in 
flames." The crews of the Congress and Cumberland escaped 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 205 

by boats, or by swimming, and our men generously abstained 
from finng on them while so exposed. Flag-officer Buchanan 
was wounded by a rifle-ball, and had to be carried below 
His mtrepid conduct won the admiration of all. The execu- 
tive and ordnance officer. Lieutenant Catesby Ap R Jones 
succeeded to the command. It was now so near night and the 
change of the tide that nothing further could be attempted on 
that day. The. Virginia, with the smaller vessels attending 
her, withdrew and anchored off Sewell's Point. She had 
sunk the Cumberland, left the Congress on fire, blown up a 
transport steamer, sunk one schooner, and captured another 
Her casualties were two killed and eight wounded. The prow 
of the Virginia was somewhat damaged, her anchor and all 
her flag-staffs were shot away, and her smoke-stack and steam- 
pipe were riddled; othenvise the vessel was uninjured, and 
ready for action next morning. The prisoners and wounded 
were immediately sent up to the hospital at Norfolk. 

During the night the Monitor, an iron-clad turret-steamer 
of an entirely new model, came in and anchored near the 
Minnesota. Like our Virginia, she was an invention, and her 
ments and demerits were yet untested in the crucible of war 
She was of light draught; very little save the revolving turret 
was visible above the water; she was readily handled, and had 
good speed ; but, like the Virginia, was not supposed by nau- 
tical men to be capable of braving rough weather at sea. 
_ The Virginia was the hull of a frigate modified into an 
iron-cIad vessel. She was only suited to smooth water, and 
It had not been practicable to obtain for her such engines as 
would have given her the requisite speed. Her draught— 
twent>-two feet— was too great for the shoal water in the 
Roads. Her great length, depth, and want of power, caused 
difficulty in handling to be anticipated. In many respects she 
was an experiment, and, had we possessed the means to build 
a ne.v % essel, no doubt a better model could have been de- 
vised. 

In the morning the Virginia, w^th the Patrick Henry, the 
Jamestown, and the three little tugs, jestingly called the "mos- 
quito fleet," returned to the scene of the previous day's com- 
bat, and to the completion of the work— the destruction of the 



206 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Minnesota — which, the evening before, had been interrupted 
by the change of tide and the coming of night. The Monitor, 
which had been seen by the light of the burning Congress, 
opened fire on the Virginia when about the third of a mile 
distant. The Virginia sought to close with her, but the 
greater speed of the Monitor, and the celerity with which she 
was handled, made this impracticable. The ships passed and 
repassed very near each other, and the Virginia frequently 
delivered her broadside at close quarters, but with no percep- 
tible effect. The Monitor fired rapidly from her revolving 
turret, but not with such aim as to strike successively in the 
same place, and the armor of the Virginia therefore remained 
unbroken. Lieutenant-commanding Catesby Jones soon dis- 
covered that the Alonitor was invulnerable to his shells. He 
determined, therefore, to run her down, and got all the head- 
way he could obtain for that purpose, but the speed was so 
small that it merely pushed her out of the way. It was then 
decided to board her, and all hands were piped for that object. 
Then the Monitor slipped away into shoal water, where the 
Virginia could not approach her; and Commander Jones, after 
waiting a due time, and giving the usual signals of invitation 
to combat, without receiving any manifestation on the part of 
the Monitor of an intention to return to deep water, withdrew 
to the navy-yard. 

In the two days of conflict our only casualties were from 
the Cumberland, as she went down, valiantly fighting to the 
last ; from the men on shore when the tugs went to the Con- 
gress to receive her surrender; and from the perfidious fire 
from the Congress while her white flags were flying. None 
was killed or wounded in the fight with the Monitor. 

As this was the first combat between two iron-clad vessels, 
it attracted great attention and provoked much speculation. 
Some assumed that wooden ships were henceforth to be of no 
use, and much has been done by the addition of armor to pro- 
tect sea-going vessels ; but certainly neither of the two which 
provoked the speculation could be regarded as seaworthy or 
suited to other than harbor defence. 

A new prow was put on the Virginia, she was furnished 
with bolts and solid shot, and the slight repairs needed were 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. T.O'J 

promptly made. The distinguished veteran, Commodore 
Josiah Tatnall, was assigned to the command of the Virginia^ 
vice Admiral Buchanan, temporarily disabled. The Virginia 
was prepared for battle and for cruising in the Roads, and on 
the nth of April Commodore Tatnall moved down to invite 
the Monitor to combat. But her officers kept the Monitor close 
to the shore, with her steam up, and under the guns of Fortress 
Monroe. To provoke her to come out, the little Jamestown 
was sent in and pluckily captured many prizes ; but the Mon- 
itor lay safe in the shoal water under the guns of the formid- 
able fortress. An English man-of-war, which was lying in the 
channel, witnessed this effort to draw the Monitor out into deep 
water in defence of her weaker countrymen, and as Barney, on 
\\\Q. Jamcstoivn, passed with his prizes, cut out in full view of 
the enemy's fleet, the Englishmen, with their national admira- 
tion of genuine " game," as a spectator described it, "unable to 
restrain their generous impulses, from the captain to the side- 
boy, cheered our gunboat to the very echo." I quote further 
from the same witness : " Early in May a magnificent Federal 
fieet, the Virginia being concealed behind the land, had ven- 
tured across the channel, and some of them, expressly fitted to 
destroy our ship, were furiously bombarding our batteries at 
Sewell's Point. Dashing down comes old Tatnall on the in- 
stant, as light-stepping and blithe as a boy. But the Vir- 
ginia no sooner draws into range than the whole fleet, like a 
flushed covey of birds, flutters off into shoal water and under 
the guns of the forts " — where they remained. After some 
delay, and there being no prospect of active service, the com- 
modore ordered the executive officer to fire a gun to wind- 
ward and take the ship back to her buoy. Here, waiting for 
an enemy to engage her, but never having the opportunity, she 
remained until the loth of the ensuing month. 

Notwithstanding the injury done to it by conflagration, 
the Norfolk navy-yard was yet the most available and best 
equipped yard in the Confederacy. A land force under 
General Huger had been placed there for its protection, and 
defensive works had been constructed with a view to hold it, 
as well for naval construction and repair as for its strategic 
importance in connection with the defence of Richmond. On 



208 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the opposite side of the lower James, on the peninsula between 
the James and York Rivers, we occupied an intrenched posi- 
tion of much natural strength. The two positions — Norfolk 
and the peninsula — were necessary to each other, and the com- 
mand of the channel between them was essential to both. As 
long as the Virginia closed the entrance to the James River, 
and the intrenchment on the peninsula was held, it was 
deemed possible to keep possession of Norfolk. 

On the ist of May General Johnston, commanding on 
the peninsula, having decided to retreat, sent an order to 
General Huger to evacuate Norfolk. The Secretary of War — 
General Randolph — ^having arrived just at that time in Norfolk, 
assumed the authority of postponing the execution of the 
order " until General Huger could remove such stores, muni- 
tions, and arms as could be carried off." The Secretary of 
the Navy — Mr. Mallory — gave like instructions to the com- 
mandant of the yard. To the system and energy with which 
'General Huger conducted the removal of heavy guns, ma- 
chinery, stores, and munitions we were greatly indebted in 
our future operations, both of construction and defence. A 
week was thus employed in the removal of machinery, etc.; 
and the enemy, occupied with the retreating army on the 
peninsula, did not cross the James River above, either to 
interrupt the transportation or to obstruct the retreat of the 
garrisons of the forts at Norfolk and its surroundings. 

When our army had been withdrawn from the peninsula,- 
and Norfolk had been evacuated, and the James River did 
not furnish depth of channel sufificient for the Virginia to 
ascend it more than a few miles, her mission was ended. It 
is not surprising that her brilliant career created a great desire 
to preserve her, and that it was contemplated to lighten her, 
and thus try to take her up the river ; but the pilots de- 
clared this to be impracticable, and the court which subse- 
quently investigated the matter sustained their opinion that 
" the only alternative was then and there to abandon and 
burn the ship." She could not ascend the river, was un- 
seaworthy, and was uncovered by the retreat of the troops 
with whom she had co-operated. So, on the loth of May, the 
Virginia was taken to Craney Island, one mile above, and there 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 209 

her crew landed. They fell in and formed on the beach, and in 
the language of an eye-witness, "then and there, on the very 
field of her fame, within sight of the Cumberland's top-gallant 
masts, within sight of that magnificent fleet still cowerin- on 
the shoal, with her laurels all fresh and green, we hauled down 
her droopmg colors, and, with mingled pride and grief we 
gave her to the flames." ' 

At Wilmington, N.C., the Southwest bar was defended by 
l^ort Caswell, and New Inlet bar by Fort Fisher. The naval 
defences consisted of two ironclads, the North Carolina and the 
Raleigh. The North Carolina could not cross any of the 
bars m consequence of her draught of water. Her steam- 
power hardly gave propulsion. She sank, during the war off 
Smithville. The Raleigh's services were almost valueless in 
consequence of her deep draught and her feeble steam-power 
She made one futile trip out of New Inlet, and, after a few 
hours, attempted to return, but was wrecked upon the bar. 

The brave and invincible defence of Fort Sumter crave to 
the city of Charleston, S. C, additional lustre. For nearly four 
years that fort covered its harbor, defying the army and navy 
of the United States. 

When the city was about to be abandoned to the army of 
General Sherman, the forts defending the harbor were em- 
braced in General Hardee's plan of evacuation. 

On the 17th of February, 1865, Captain Huguenin, with 
about 300 war-worn soldiers, retired, in obedience to the order 
of their commanding general. Then, after its brave defenders 
had been withdrawn, Fort Sumter, left alone with its record of 
glory, passed into the possession of the enemy, its battle-scarred 
walls showing how faithfully it had served the purpose for 
which South Carolina had granted the site. 

In 1863, or 1864, the gallant commander of that fort, 
Colonel Stephen Elliott, Jr., had been under continuous bom- 
bardment, day and night, for so long a period that it was 
supposed he might be exhausted, and he was invited to retire 
temporarily for rest. With unyielding fortitude he declined, 
and remained at his post until he was promoted and trans- 
ferred to duty more appropriate to the higher grade. 

The naval force of the Confederacy in Charleston Harbor 



2IO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

consisted of three ironclads. Their steam-power was totally 
inadequate for the effective use of the vessels. In fact, when 
the wind and tide were moving in the same direction it was 
impossible for the vessels to advance against them, light though 
the wind might be. Under such circumstances it was neces- 
sary to come to an anchor. On one occasion the ironclads 
Palmetto State and Chicora ran out of Charleston under fa- 
vorable circumstances. The Palmetto State assaulted the 
Mercidata, commanded by Captain Stellwagen, who un- 
conditionally surrendered. But the ironclad was under orders 
to follow her consort in chase of the enemy, and, having no 
boats in which to transfer her prisoners, the parole of the officers 
and men was accepted, with their promise to observe the same 
until its return. The surrender was accepted, an honest pa- 
role being the consideration for not being sunk on the spot. 
Captain Stellwagen abided but a short time, when, getting up 
steam, he broke his plighted word and ran off with the cap- 
tured vessel. The deficiency of speed on the part of the Con- 
federate ironclads frustrated their efforts to relieve the city 
of Charleston from continued blockade. 

The harbor defences of Savannah were intrusted to Com- 
modore Tatnall, who defended the approach to the city with a 
small steamer of one gun, an inefficient floating battery, and an 
ironclad, which had been constructed from a blockade-runner. 
Several attempts were made to attack the enemy's vessels 
with the ironclad, but these were frustrated by the delay in 
opening a passage through the obstructions in the river when 
tide and opportunity offered. Her draught was too great 
for the depth of water, except at high tides, and these were 
at long intervals. The ironclad was armed with a bat- 
tery of four guns — two 7-inch and two 6-inch. Her force 
consisted of some twenty-one officers and twenty-four men, 
when she was fully furnished. Another vessel was under 
construction and nearly completed, and Commodore Tatnall, 
notwithstanding his well-known combative instincts, was un- 
derstood to be unwilling to send the Atlanta alone against 
the enemy's blockading vessels. Lieutenant Webb, who had 
been lately placed in command of the Atlanta, took her to 
Warsaw Sound to deliver battle singly to the two ironclads 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 211 

Weehawken and Nahant, which awaited her approach. The 
Atlanta got twice aground— the second time inextricably so. 
In this situation she was attacked, and, though hopelessly, was 
bravely defended, but was finally forced to surrender. 

Mobile Harbor was thought to be adequately provided for, 
as torpedoes obstructed the approach, and Forts Morgan and 
Gaines commanded the entrance, aided by the improvised 
fleet of Admiral Buchanan, which consisted of the wooden 
gunboats Morgan and Gaines, each carrying six guns, and 
Selma, four guns, with the ram Tennessee of six guns— in all, 
twenty-two guns and four hundred and seventy men. On 
August 4, 1864, Fort Gaines was assaulted by the United 
States force from the sea side of the beach. The resistance 
made was feeble, and the fort was soon surrendered. On the 
next day Admiral Farragut stood into the bay with a force 
consisting of four monitors, or ironclads, and fourteen steam- 
ers, carrying one hundred and ninety-nine guns and twenty- 
seven hundred men. One ironclad was sunk by a torpedo. 
Admiral Buchanan advanced to meet this force, and sought 
to run into the larger vessels with the Te7inessee, but they 
avoided him by their superior speed. Meanwhile the gun- 
boats became closely engaged with the enemy, but were soon 
dispersed by his overwhelming force. The Tennessee again 
stood for the enemy, and renewed the attack with the hope of 
sinking some of them with her prow, but she was again foiled 
by their superior speed in avoiding her. The engagement 
with the whole fleet soon became general, and lasted an hour. 
Frequently the Tennessee was surrounded by the enemy, and 
all her guns were in action almost at the same moment. 
Four of their heaviest vessels ran into her, under full steam, 
with the view of sinking her. While surrounded by six of 
these heavy vessels, which were suffering fearfully from her 
heavy battery, the steering-gear of the Tennessee was shot 
away, and her ability to manoeuvre was completely destroyed, 
leaving the formidable Confederate entirely at the disposal of 
the enemy. This misfortune, it was believed, saved the 
greater part of Farragut's fleet. Further resistance becoming 
unavailable, the wounded Admiral was under the painful 
necessity of ordering a surrender. His little fleet became a 



212 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

prey to the enemy, except the Morgan, which made good her 
escape to Mobile. 

This unequal contest was decidedly creditable to the 
Confederacy. The entire loss of the enemy, most of which 
was ascribed to the Ten?iessee, amounted to quite three hun- 
dred in killed and wounded, exclusive of one hundred lost 
on the sunken ironclad, making a number almost as large as 
the entire Confederate force. On August 22d Fort Morgan 
was bombarded from the land, also by ironclads at sea, and 
by the fleet inside. Thus Forts Powel, Morgan, and Gaines 
shared the fate of the Confederate fleet, and the enemy be- 
came masters of the bay. On this as on other occasions, the 
want of engines of sufificient power constituted a main obsta- 
cle to the success which the gallantry and skill of the seamen 
so richly deserved. 

The system of torpedoes adopted by us was probably 
more effective than any other means of naval defence. The 
destructiveness of these little weapons had long been known, 
but no successful modes for their application to the destruc- 
tion of the most powerful vessels of war and ironclads had 
been devised. It remained for the skill and ingenuity of our 
officers to bring the use of this terrible instrument to per- 
fection. The success of their efforts is very frankly stated by 
one of the most distinguished of the enemy's commanders — 
Admiral Porter.* He says : 

" Most of the Southern seaports fell into our possession 
with comparative facility ; and the difficulty of capturing 
Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, and Mobile was in a 
measure owing to the fact that the approaches to these places 
were filled with various kinds of torpedoes, laid in groups, and 
fired by electricity. The introduction of this means of de- 
fence on the side of the Confederates was for a time a severe- 
check to our naval forces, for the commanders of squadrons 
felt it their duty to be careful when dealing with an element of 
warfare of which they knew so little, and the character and dis- 
position of which it was so difficult to discover. In this system 



* See Torpedo Warfare, in North American Review, September, October, 
1878. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



213 



of defence, therefore, the enemy found their greatest security ; 
and, notwithstanding all the efforts of Du Pont and Dahlgren, 
Charleston, Wilmington, and Savannah remained closed to 
our forces until near the close of the war." 

In 1862, while General McClellan was in command of the 
enemy's forces below Richmond, it was observed that they had 
more than a hundred vessels in the James River, as if they 
were about to make an advance by that way upon the city. 
This led to an order placing General G. J. Rains in charge of 
the submarine defences ; and, on the James River, opposite 
Drewry's Bluff, the first submarine torpedo was made. The 
secret of all his , future success consisted in the sensitive 
primer, which is unrivalled by any other means to explode 
torpedoes or sub-terra shells on undefended lines of approach. 

The torpedoes were made of the most ordinary materials 
generally, such as beer-barrels fixed with conical heads, coated 
within and without with rosin dissolved in coal-tar ; some 
were made of cast-iron, copper, or tin ; and glass demijohns 
were used. There were three essentials to success, viz., the 
sensitive fuse-primer, a charge of sixty pounds of gunpowder, 
and actual contact between the torpedo and the bottom of 
the vessel. 

There were 123 marine torpedoes placed in Charleston 
Harbor and Stono River. It was blockaded by 13 large ships 
and ironclads, with 6 or 7 store-ships, and some 20 other 
vessels. The position of each one was known, and they could 
be approached within a half-mile, which made it easy to attack, 
destroy, or disperse them at night by floating torpedoes, con- 
nected together by twos by a rope 130 yards long, buoyed up 
and stretched across the current by two boats, which were 
to be dropped during ebbing tide, to float down among the 
vessels. 

One hundred and one torpedoes were planted in Roanoke 
River, N. C, after a flotilla of twelve vessels had started up 
to capture Fort Branch. The torpedoes destroyed six of the 
vessels and frustrated the attack. 

Every avenue to the outworks or to the city of Mobile 
was guarded by submarine torpedoes, so that it was impossible 
for any vessel drawing three feet of water to get within effec- 



214 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

tive cannon-range of the defences. Two ironclads attempted 
to get near enough to Spanish Fort to take part in the bom- 
bardment. They both struck torpedoes, and went to the bot- 
tom on Apalachie bar ; thenceforward the fleet made no fur- 
ther attempt to encounter the almost certain destruction they 
saw awaited any vessel which might attempt to enter the tor- 
pedo-guarded waters. But many were sunk when least ex- 
pecting it. Some went down long after the Confederate 
forces had evacuated Mobile. The Tecumseh was probably 
sunk, says Major- General D. H. Maury, on her own torpedo. 
While steaming in lead of Farragut's fleet she carried a tor- 
pedo affixed to a spar, which projected some twenty feet from 
her bows ; she proposed to use this torpedo against the Ten- 
nessee, our only formidable ship ; but, while passing Fort Mor- 
gan, a shot from that fort cut away the stays by which the 
torpedo was secured ; it then doubled under her, and, explod- 
ing fairly under the bottom of the ill-fated ship, she careened 
and sank instantly in ten fathoms of water. Only six or eight 
of her crew of a hundred or more were saved. 

The total number of vessels sunk by torpedoes in Mobile 
Bay was twelve, viz., three ironclads, two tinclads, and seven 
transports. Fifty-eight vessels were destroyed in Southern 
waters by torpedoes during the war ; these included ironclads 
and others of no mean celebrity. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 21 5 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

CONFEDERATE NAVAL OPERATIONS IN THE WEST. 

New Orleans was the most important commercial port 
in the Confederacy, being the natural outlet of the Mississippi 
Valley, as well to the ports of Europe as to those of Central 
and Southern America. It had become before 1861 the chief 
cotton-mart of the United States, and its defence attracted 
the early attention of the Confederate Government. The ap- 
proaches for an attacking party were numerous. They could 
through several channels enter Lake Pontchartrain, to ap- 
proach the city in rear for land attack, could ascend the Mis- 
sissippi from the Gulf or descend it from the northwest, 
where it was known that the enemy was preparing a formida- 
ble fleet of iron-clad gunboats. 

At the mouth of the Mississippi there is a bar, the greatest 
depth of water on which seldom exceeded eighteen feet, and 
it was supposed that heavy vessels of war, with their arma- 
ment and supplies, would not be able to cross it. Such 
proved to be the fact, and the vessels of that class had to be 
lightened to enable them to enter the river. In that condi- 
tion of affairs an inferior fleet might have engaged them with 
a prospect of success. Captain Hollins, who was in command 
of the squadron at New Orleans, had been sent with the 
greater part of his fleet up the river to join in the defence there 
being made. Two powerful vessels were under construction — 
the Louisiana and the Mississippi — but neither of them was 
finished. A volunteer fleet of transport-vessels had been fitted 
up by some river men, but it was in the unfortunate condition 
of not being placed under the orders of the naval commander. 
A number of fire-rafts had been also provided, which were to 
serve the double purpose of lighting up the river in the event 
of the hostile fleet attempting to pass the forts under cover of 



2l6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the night, and of setting fire to any vessel with which they 
might come in contact. 

After passing the bar there was nothing to prevent the 
ascent of the river until Forts Jackson and St. Philip were 
reached. These works were on opposite banks of the river. 
Their armament, December 5, 1861, consisted of — Fort Jack- 
son : six 42-pounders, twenty-six 24-pounders, two 32-pound- 
ers (rifles), sixteen 32-pounders, three 8-inch columbiads, one 
lo-inch columbiad, two 8-inch mortars, one lo-inch mortar, 
two 40-pounder howitzers, and ten 24-pounder howitzers; 
Fort St. Philip : six 42-pounders, nine 32-pounders, twenty- 
two 24-pounders, four 8-inch columbiads, one 8-inch mortar, 
one lo-inch mortar, and three field-guns. 

General Duncan reported that on March 27th he was in- 
formed that the enemy's fleet was crossing the bars and en- 
tering the Mississippi River in force ; whereupon he repaired 
to Fort Jackson. 

The garrisons of Forts Jackson and St. Philip were about 
one thousand men on December 5, 1861 ; afterward, so far as 
I know, the number was not materially changed. 

The prevailing belief that vessels of war, in a straight, 
smooth channel, could pass batteries, led to the construction 
of a raft between the two forts, which, it was supposed, would 
detain the ships under fire of the forts long enough for the 
guns to sink them, or at least to compel them to retire. The 
power of the river when in flood, and the drift-wood it bore 
upon it, broke the raft ; another was constructed, which, when 
the drift-wood accumulated upon it, met a like fate. 

The general plan for the defence of New Orleans consisted 
of two lines of works ; an exterior one, passing through the 
forts near the mouth of the river, and the positions taken to 
defend the various water approaches. Nearer to the city was 
the interior line, embracing New Orleans and Algiers, which 
was intended principally to repel an attack by land, but also, 
by its batteries on the river-bank, to resist approach by water. 
The total length of the intrenchments on this interior line 
was more than eight miles. When completed, it formed, in 
connection with impassable swamps, a very strong line of de- 
fence. At the then hi^h sta^e of the river all the land be- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 21/ 

tween it and the swamps was so saturated with water that 
regular approaches could not have been made. The city, 
therefore, was at the time supposed to be doubly secure from 
a land attack. 

In the winter of 1861-62 I sent one of my aides-de-camp 
to New Orleans to make a general inspection, and hold free 
conference with the commanding general. Upon his return 
he reported that General Lovell was quite satisfied with the 
condition of the land defences. 

The interior lines of defence mounted more than sixty 
guns of various calibre, and were surrounded by wide and 
deep ditches. On the various water approaches, including 
bays and bayous on both sides of the river, there were six- 
teen different forts, and these, together with those on the 
river, and the batteries of the interior line, had in position 
about three hundred guns. 

One ironclad, the Louisiana, mounting sixteen guns of 
heavy calibre, though she was not quite completed, was sent 
down to co-operate with the forts. Her defective steam- 
power and imperfect steering apparatus prevented her from 
rendering active co-operation. The steamship Mississippi, 
then under construction at New Orleans, was in such an un- 
finished condition as to be wholly unavailable when the enemy 
arrived. There were also several small river-steamers which 
were lightly armed, and their bows were protected so that 
they could act as rams, and otherwise aid in the defence of the 
river; but, from the reports received, they seem, with a few 
honorable exceptions, to have rendered little service. 

The means of defence, therefore, mainly relied on were 
the two heavy-armed forts, Jackson and St. Philip, with the 
obstruction placed between them : this was a raft consisting 
of cypress-trees, forty feet long, and averaging four or five 
feet at the larger end. They were placed longitudinally in 
the river, about three feet apart, and held together by gun- 
wales on top, and strung upon two two-and-a-half-inch chain- 
cables fastened to their lower sides. This raft was anchored 
in the river, abreast of the forts. 

The fleet of the enemy below the forts consisted of seven 
steam sloops-of-war, twelve gunboats, and several armed 



2l8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

steamers, under Commodore Farragut ; also, a mortar fleet 
consisting of twenty sloops and some steam-vessels. The 
whole force was forty-odd vessels of different kinds, with an 
armament of three hundred guns of heavy calibre, of improved 
models. 

The bombardment of the forts by the mortar fleet com- 
menced on April i8th. After six days of vigorous and constant 
shelling the resisting power of the forts was not diminished 
in any perceptible degree. On the 23d there were manifest 
preparations by the enemy to attempt the passage of the forts. 
The sloops-of-war and the "gunboats were each formed in two 
divisions, and, selecting the darkest hour of the night, between 
3 and 4 A.M. of the 24th, moved up the river in two columns. 
The commanders of the forts had vainly endeavored to have 
the river lighted up in anticipation of an attack by the fleet. 

In the meantime, while the fleet moved up the river, there 
was kept up from the mortars a steady bombardment on the 
forts, and these replied by a fire on the ascending columns of 
ships and gunboats ; but, from the failure to send down the 
fire-rafts to light up the river, the fire was less effective than 
it otherwise would have been. The straight, deep channel 
enabled the vessels to move at their greatest speed, and thus 
the forts were passed. 

Brigadier-General J. K. Duncan, commanding the coast 
defences, says, in his report of the passing of Forts Jackson 
and St. Philip by the enemy's fleet : 

" Finding that the only resistance offered to his passage 
was the anticipated fire of the forts — the broken and scattered 
raft being no obstacle — I am satisfied that he was suddenly 
inspired, for the first time, to run the gauntlet at all hazards, 
although not a part of his original design. Be that as it may, 
a rapid rush was made by him in columns of twos in echelon, 
so as not to interfere with each other's broadsides. The 
mortar fire was furiously increased upon Fort Jackson, and, in 
dashing by, each of the vessels delivered broadside after 
broadside, of shot, shell, grape, canister, and spherical case, to 
drive the men from our guns. 

" Both the ofificers and men stood up gallantly under this 
galling and fearful hail, and the batteries of both forts were 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 219 

promptly opened at their longest range, with shot, shell, hot 
shot, and a little grape, and most gallantly and rapidly fought 
until the enemy succeeded in getting above and beyond the 
range. The absence of light on the river, together with the 
smoke of the guns, made the obscurity so dense that scarcely 
a vessel was visible, and in consequence the gunners were 
obliged to govern their firing entirely by flashes of the enemy's 
guns. I am fully satisfied that the enemy's dash was success- 
ful mainly owing to the cover of darkness, as a frigate and sev- 
eral gunboats were forced to retire as day was breaking. Similar 
results had attended every previous attempt made by the 
enemy to pass or to reconnoitre when we had sufficient light 
to fire with accuracy and effect." 

The vessels which passed the forts anchored at the quaran- 
tine station about six miles above, and in the forenoon proceed- 
ed up the river. Batteries had been constructed where the 
interior line of defence touched both the right and the left bank 
of the river. The high stage of the river gave to its surface an 
elevation above that of the natural bank ; but a continuous 
levee to protect the land from inundation existed on both 
sides of the river. When the ascending fleet approached these 
batteries, a cross fire, which drove two of the vessels back, was 
opened upon it, and continued until the useful ammunition 
was exhausted. The garrisons were then withdrawn — casual- 
ities, one killed and one wounded. 

General Duncan, whose protracted, skilful, and gallant 
defence of the forts is above all praise, closes his official report 
with the following sentence : " Except for the cover afforded 
by the obscurity of the darkness, I shall always remain satis- 
fied that the enemy would never have succeeded in passing 
Forts Jackson and St. Philip." The darkness to which he 
referred was not only that of night, but also the failure to 
utilize the means prepared to light up the river. As further 
proof of the intensity of the darkness, and the absence of that 
intelligent design and execution which had been expected, I 
will quote a sentence from the report of Commodore Farra- 
gut : " At length the fire slackened, the smoke cleared off, and 
we saw to our surprise that we were above the forts." 

On the 25th of April the enemy's gunboats and ships of 



220 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

war anchored in front of the city and demanded its surrender. 
Major-General M. Lovell, in command, refused to comply, 
but, believing himself unable to make a successful defence, 
and in order to avoid a bombardment, agreed to withdraw his 
forces, and turn the city over to the civil authorities. It 
was evacuated on the same day. The forts still continued 
defiantly to hold their position. By assiduous exertion the 
damage done to the works was repaired, and the garrisons 
valiantly responded to the resolute determination of General 
Duncan and Colonel Higgins to defend the forts against the 
fleet still below, as well as against that which had passed and 
was now above. 

During the 25th, 26th, and 27th there was an abate- 
ment of fire on the forts. A rumor became current that the 
city had surrendered, and no reply had been received to in- 
quiries sent on the 24th and 25th. About midnight on the 
27th the garrison of Fort Jackson revolted en masse, seized 
upon the guard, and commenced to spike the guns. Captain 
S. O. Comay's company, the Louisiana Cannoneers of St. 
Mary's Parish, and a few others remained true to their cause 
and country. The mutiny was so general that the officers 
were powerless to control it, and they therefore decided to let 
those go who wished to leave, and after daybreak to commu- 
nicate with the fleet below and negotiate for the terms which 
had been previously offered and declined. 

Under the incessant fire to which the forts had been ex- 
posed, and the rise of the water in the casemates and lower 
part of the works, the men had been not only deprived of 
sleep, but of the opportunity to prepare their food. Heroically 
they had braved alike dangers and discomfort ; had labored 
constantly to repair damages ; to extinguish fires caused by 
exploding shells; to preserve their ammunition by bailing out 
the water which threatened to submerge the magazine ; yet, 
in a period of comparative repose, these men, who had been 
cheerful and obedient, as suddenly as unexpectedly broke out 
into mutiny. Under the circumstances which surrounded 
him. General Duncan had no alternative. It only remained 
for him to accept the proposition which had been made for a 
surrender of the forts. As this mutiny became known about 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



221 



midnight of the 27th, soon after daylight of the 28th a small 
boat was procured, and notice of the event was sent to Cap- 
tain xMitchell, on the Louisiana, and also to Fort St Philip 
The officers of that fort concurred in the propriety of the sur- 
render, though none of their men had openly revolted. 

A flag of truce was sent to Commodore Porter to notify him 
of a willingness to negotiate for the surrender of the forts 
The gallantry with which the defence had been conducted 
was recognized by the enemy, and the terms were as liberal 
as had been offered on former occasions. 

The garrisons were paroled, the officers were to retain their 
side-arms, and the Confederate flags were left flying over the 
forts until after our forces had withdrawn. If this was done 
as a generous recognition of the gallantry with which the forts 
had been defended, it claims acknowledgment as an instance 
of martial courtesy— the flower that blooms fairest amid the 
desolations of war. 

Captain Mitchell, commanding the Confederate States 
naval forces, had been notified by General Duncan of the mu- 
tiny in the forts, and of the fact that the enemy had passed 
through a channel in rear of Fort St. Philip and had landed a 
force at the quarantine, some six miles above, and that, under 
the circumstances, it was deemed necessary to surrender the 
forts. As the naval forces were not under the orders of the 
general commanding the coast defences, it was optional with 
the naval commander to do likewise, or not, as to his fleet. Af- 
ter consultation with his officers. Captain Mitchell decided to 
destroy his flagship, the Louisiana, the only formidable vessel 
he had, rather than allow her to fall into the hands of the 
enemy. The crew was accordingly withdrawn, and the vessel 
set on fire. 

Commodore Porter, commanding the fleet below, came up 
under a flag of truce to Fort Jackson, and, while negotiations 
were progressing for the surrender, the Louisiana, in flames, 
drifted down the river, and, when close under Fort St. Philip, 
exploded and sank. 

The confusion which prevailed in the city, when the news 
arrived that the forts had been passed by the enemy's fleet, 
shows how little it was expected. There was nothing to ob- 



222 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Struct the ascent of the river between Forts Jackson and St. 
Philip, up to the batteries on the river where the interior line 
of defence rested on its right and left banks, about four miles be- 
low the city. The guns were not sufficiently numerous in these 
batteries to inspire much confidence ; they were nevertheless 
well served until the available ammunition was exhausted, af- 
ter which the garrisons withdrew, and made their way by dif- 
ferent routes to join the forces withdrawn from New Orleans. 

Under the supposition entertained by the generals nearest 
to the operations, the greatest danger to New Orleans was 
from above, not below the city ; therefore, most of the troops 
had been sent from the city to Tennessee, and Captain Rol- 
lins, with the greater part of the river-i^eet, had gone up to 
check the descent of the enemy's gunboats. 

Batteries like those immediately below the city had been 
constructed where the interior line touched the river above, 
and armed to resist an attack from that direction. Doubtful 
as to the direction from which, and the manner in which, an 
attempt might be made to capture the city, such preparations 
as circumstances suggested were made against many supposa- 
ble dangers by the many possible routes of approach. To de- 
fend the city from the land, against a bombardment by a pow- 
erful fleet in the river before it, had not been contemplated. 
All the defensive preparations were, properly, I think, directed 
to the prevention of a near approach by the enemy. To have 
subjected the city to bombardment by a direct or plunging 
fire, as the surface of the river was then higher than the land, 
would have been exceptionally destructive. Had the city 
been filled with soldiers whose families had been sent to a 
place of safety, instead of being filled with women and children 
whose natural protectors were generally in the army and far 
away, the attempt might have been justified to line the levee 
with all the effective guns and open fire on the fleet, at the 
expense of whatever property might be destroyed before the 
enemy should be driven away. The case was the reverse of the 
hypothesis, and nothing could have been more unjust than to 
censure the commanding general for withdrawing a force large 
enough to induce a bombardment, but insufficient to repel it. 
His answer to the demand for the surrender showed clearly 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 223 

enough the motives by which he was influenced. His refusal 
enabled him to withdraw the troops and most of the public 
property, and to use them, with the ordnance stores thus 
saved, in providing for the defence of Vicksburg; but especially 
it deprived the enemy of any pretext for bombarding the town 
and sacrificing the lives of women and children. It has been 
stated that General Lovell called for ten thousand volunteers 
from the citizens, but failed to get them. 

The fall of New Orleans was a great disaster, over which 
there was general lamentation, mingled with no little indigna- 
tion. The excited feeling demanded a victim, and the conflict- 
ing testimony of many witnesses most nearly concerned made it 
convenient to select for censure those most removed and least 
active in their own justification. Thus the naval constructors 
of the Mississippi and the Secretary of the Navy became the 
special objects of attack. The selection of these had little of 
justice in it, and could not serve to relieve others of their re- 
sponsibility, as did the old-time doom of the scapegoat. New 
Orleans had never been a ship-building port, and when the 
Messrs. Tift, the agents to build the iron-clad steamer Missis- 
sippi, arrived there, they had to prepare a ship-yard, procure 
lumber from a distance, have the foundries and rolling-mills 
adapted to such iron-work as could be done in the city, and 
contract elsewhere for the balance. They were ingenious, 
well informed in matters of ship-building, and were held 
in high esteem in Georgia and Florida, where they had long 
resided. They submitted a proposition to the Secretary of 
the Navy to build a vessel on a new model. The proposition 
was accepted after full examination of the plan proposed, the 
novelty of which made it necessary that they should have full 
control of the work of construction. To the embarrassments 
above mentioned were added interruptions by calling off the 
workmen occasionally for exercise and instruction as militia- 
men, the city being threatened by the enemy. From these 
causes unexpected delay in the completion of the ship resulted, 
regret for which increased as her most formidable character 
was realized. 

These constructors— the brothers Tift— hoped to gain much 
reputation by the ship which they designed, and, from this 



224 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

motive, agreed to give their full service and unremitted atten- 
tion in its construction without compensation or other allow- 
ance than their current expenses. It would, therefore, on the 
face of it, seem to have been a most absurd suspicion that they 
willingly delayed the completion of the vessel, and at last 
wantonly destroyed it. 

Mr. E. C. Murray, who was the contractor for building the 
Louisiana, in his testimony before a committee of the Confed- 
erate Congress, testified that he had been a practical ship- 
builder for twenty years, and a contractor for the preceding 
eighteen years, having built about a hundred and twenty 
boats, steamers, and sailing-vessels. There was only a fence 
between his ship-yard and that where the Mississippi was 
constructed. Of this latter vessel he said : " I think the ves- 
sel was built in less time than any vessel of her tonnage, 
character, and requiring the same amount of work and mate- 
rials, on this continent. . . . They worked on nights and 
Sundays upon her, as I did upon the Louisiana^ at least for a 
large portion of the time." 

On March 22d the Secretary, by telegraph, directed the 
constructors to " strain every nerve to finish the ship," and 
added, " work day and night." April 5th he wrote again : 
" Spare neither men nor mone^ to complete her at the earliest 
moment. Can you not hire night-gangs for triple wages ? " 
April loth the Secretary again says : " Enemy's boats have 
passed Island 10. Work day and night, with all the force you 
can command, to get the Mississippi ready. Spare neither 
men nor money." April nth he asks, "When will you 
launch, and when will she be ready for action ? " These in- 
quiries indicate the prevalent opinion, at that time, that the 
danger to New Orleans was from the iron-clad fleet above, 
and not from the vessels at the mouth of the river ; but the 
anxiety of the Secretary of the Navy, and the efforts made by 
him, were of a character applicable to either or both sources 
of danger. Thus we find, as early as the 24th of February, 
1862, that he instructed Commander Mitchell to make all 
proper exertions to have guns and carriages ready for both 
the iron-clad vessels, the Mississippi and Louisiana. Reports 
having reached him that the work on the latter vessel was not 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 225 

pushed With sufficient energy, on the 15th of March he au- 
thorized Commander Mitchell to consult with General Lovell 
and, If the contractors were not doing everything practicable 
to complete her at the earliest moment, that he should take 
her out of their hands, and, with the aid of General Lovell 
go on to complete her himself. On the 5th of April, 1862' 
Secretary Mallory instructed Commander Sinclair, who had 
been assigned to the command of the Mississippi, to urge on 
TR^rf.' M ''^ ''' completion of the ship. In March, 
. M '^"^^^^y D^Pf tment sent from Montgomery officers 
to New Orleans, with instructions to purchase steamers and 
fit them for war purposes. Officers were also sent to the 
North to purchase vessels suited to such uses, and another to 
Europe for like objects; and in April, 1861, contracts were 
made with foundries at Richmond and New Orleans to make 
guns for the defence of New Orleans. On the 8th of May 
1861 the Secretary of the Navy communicated at some len-th 
to the Committee on Naval Affairs of the Confederate Con- 
gress his views in favor of iron-clad vessels, arguing as well for 
their efficiency as the economy in building them, believino- 
that one such vessel could successfully engage a fleet of the 
wooden vessels which constituted the enemy's navy 



226 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

NAVAL AFFAIRS IN THE WEST. 

After the troops had been withdrawn and the city re- 
stored to the administration of the civil authorities, Commo- 
dore Farragut, on April 26, 1862, addressed the Mayor, repeat- 
ing his demand for the surrender of the city. In his letter he 
said : " It is not within the province of a naval officer to as- 
sume the duties of a military commandant," and added : " The 
rights of persons and property shall be secured." He pro- 
ce'eded then to demand " that the emblem of sovereignty of 
the United States be hoisted over the City Hall, Mint, and 
Custom-house by meridian this day. All flags and other 
emblems of sovereignty other than those of the United States 
must be removed from all the public buildings by that 
hour." To this the Mayor, John T. Monroe, replied, and 
the following extracts convey the general purport of his 

letter: 

" The city is without the means of defence, and is utterly 
destitute of the force and material that might enable it to 
resist an overpowering armament displayed in sight of it. 
... To surrender such a place were an idle and unmeaning 
ceremony. . . . As to hoisting any flag other than the 
flag of our own adoption and allegiance, let me say to you that 
the man lives not in our midst whose hand and heart would 
not be paralyzed at the mere thought of such an act ; nor 
could I find in my entire constituency so wretched and des- 
perate a renegade as would dare to profane with his hand the 
sacred emblem of our aspirations. . . . Peace and order 
may be preserved without resort to measures which I could 
not at this moment prevent. Your occupying the city does 
not transfer allegiance from the government of their choice 
to one which they have deliberately repudiated, and they yield 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 22/ 

the obedience which the conqueror is entitled to extort from 
the conquered." 

On the 29th of April Admiral Farragut adopted the alter- 
native presented by the answer of the Mayor, and sent a de- 
tachment of marines to hoist the United States flag over the 
Custom-house, and to pull down the Confederate flag from 
the staff on the City Hall. An officer and some marines re- 
mained at the Custom-house to guard the United States flag 
hoisted over it until the land forces under General Butler 
arrived. 

On the 1st of May General Butler took possession of the 
defenceless city ; then followed the reign of terror, pillage, and 
a long train of infamies, too disgraceful to be remembered 
without a sense of shame by anyone who is proud of the 
American name. 

Had the population of New Orleans been vagrant and 
riotous the harsh measures adopted might have been excused, 
though nothing could have justified the barbarities which were 
practised ; but, notable as the city had always been for free- 
dom from tumult, and occupied as it then was mainly by wom- 
en and children, nothing can extenuate the wanton insults 
and outrages heaped upon them. That those not informed of 
the character of the citizens may the better comprehend it, a 
brief reference is made to its history. 

When Canada, then a French colony, was conquered by 
Great Britain, many of the inhabitants of greatest influence 
and highest cultivation, in a spirit of loyalty to their flag, mi- 
grated to the wilds of Louisiana. Some of them established 
themselves in and about New Orleans, and their numerous 
descendants formed, down to a late period, the controlling 
element in the body politic. Even after they had ceased, 
because of large immigration, to control in the commercial 
and political affairs of the city, their social standard was still 
the rule. No people were more characterized by refinement, 
courtesy, and chivalry. Of their keen susceptibility the 
Mayor informed Commodore Farragut in his correspondence 
with that officer. 

When the needy barbarians of the upper plains of Asia 
descended upon the classic fields of Italy, their atrocities 



228 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

were such as shocked the common sense of humanity ; but, if 
anyone shall inquire minutely into the conduct of Butler and 
his followers at New Orleans, he will find there a history yet 
more revolting. A graphic and full description of the atroci- 
ties perpetrated may be found in the " Decades of Louisiana," 
a work of an eye-witness, published in New Orleans by Alex- 
ander Walker. 

On May 17, 1862, Captain Eagle, United States Navy, 
commanding the naval forces before Galveston, summoned 
it to surrender, " to prevent the effusion of blood and the de- 
struction of property which would result from the bombard- 
ment of the town," adding that the land and naval forces 
would appear in a few days. The reply was, that " when the 
land and naval forces made their appearance the demand 
would be answered." The harbor and town of Galveston 
were not prepared to resist a bombardment, and, under the 
advice of General Hubert, the citizens remained quiet, re- 
solved, when the enemy should attempt to penetrate the 
interior, to resist his march at every point. This condition 
remained without any material change until the 8th of the 
following October, when Commander Renshaw, with a fleet 
of gunboats consisting of the Westjield, Harriet Lane, 
Owasco, Clifton^ and some transports, approached so near 
the city as to command it with his guns. Upon a signal the 
mayor pro tern, came off to the flag-ship and informed Com- 
mander Renshaw that the military and civil authorities, by a 
meeting of citizens, had chosen him to act as mayor, and that 
he had come for the purpose of learning the intentions of the 
naval commander. In reply he was informed that there was 
no purpose to interfere with the municipal affairs of the city ; 
that Commander Renshaw did not intend to occupy it be- 
fore the arrival of a military commander, but that he intended 
to hoist the United States flag upon the public buildings, and 
claim that it should be respected. The acting mayor in- 
formed him that persons over whom he had no control might 
take down the flag, and he could not guarantee that it should 
be respected. Commander Renshaw replied that, to avoid 
any difficulty like that which occurred in New Orleans, he 
would send with the flag a sufficient force to protect it, and 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 229 

would not keep the flag flying for more than a quarter or half 
an hour. 

The vessels of the fleet were assigned to positions com- 
manding the town and the bridge which connected the island 
with the mainland, and a battalion of Massachusetts volun- 
teers was posted on one of the wharves. 

Late in 1862 General John B. Magruder, a skilful and 
knightly soldier, who had at an earlier period of the year ren- 
dered distinguished service by his defence of the peninsula 
between the James and York Rivers, Va., was assigned to the 
command of the Department of Texas. On his arrival he 
found the enemy in possession of the principal port^ — Gal- 
veston — and other points on the coast. He promptly col- 
lected the scattered arms and field artillery, had a couple of 
ordinary high-pressure steamboats used in the transportation 
of cotton on Buffalo Bayou protected with cotton-bales piled 
from the main deck to and above the hurricane-roof ; and these, 
under the command of Captain Leon Smith, of the Texas 
Navy, in co-operation with the volunteers, were relied upon 
to recapture the harbor and island of Galveston. Between 
night and morning on the ist of January, 1863, the land 
forces entered the town and the steamboats came into the 
bay, manned by Texas cavalry and volunteer artillery. The 
field artillery was run down to the shore and opened fire 
upon the boats. The battalion of the enemy having torn up 
the plank of the wharf, our infantry could only approach 
them by wading through the water, and climbing upon the 
wharf. The two steamboats attacked the Harriet Latze, the 
gunboat lying farthest up the bay. They were both so frail 
in their construction that their only chance was to close and 
board. One of them was soon disabled by collision with the 
strong vessel, and in a sinking condition ran into shoal water. 
The other closed with the Harriet Lane, boarded and captured 
the vessel. The flag-ship, Westfield, got aground and could not 
be got off. General Magruder then sent a demand that the 
enemy's vessels should surrender except one, on which the 
crews of all should leave the harbor, giving until ten o'clock 
for compliance with his demand, to enforce which he put a 
crew on the Harriet Lane, then the most efficient vessel afloat 



230 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

of the enemy's fleet, and, while waiting for an answer, ceased 
firing. Commander Renshaw refused to accede to the propo- 
sition, directing the commander of the Clifton to get all the 
vessels, including the CorypJieus and Sachem, which had re- 
cently joined, out of port as soon as possible, and stating that 
he would blow up the Westfield, and leave on the transports 
lying near him with his ofificers and crew. In attempting to 
execute this purpose Commander Renshaw and ten or fifteen 
others perished soon after leaving the ship, in consequence 
of the explosion being premature. The general commanding 
made the following preliminary report : 

" Head-quarters, Galveston, Texas. 

"This morning, the ist of January, at three o'clock, I 
attacked the enemy's fleet and garrison at this place, captured 
the latter and the steamer Harriet Lane, two barges, and a 
schooner. The rest, some four or five, escaped ignominiously 
under cover of a flag of truce. I have about six hundred 
prisoners and a large quantity of valuable stores, arms, etc. 
The Harriet Lane is very little injured. She was carried by 
boarders from two high-pressure cotton steamers, manned by 
Texas cavalry and artillery. The line troops were gallantly 
commanded by Colonel Green, of Sibley's brigade, and the 
ships and artillery by Major Leon Smith, to whose indomi- 
table energy and heroic daring the country is indebted for the 
successful execution of a plan which I had considered for the 
destruction of the enemy's fleet. Colonel Bagby, of Sibley's 
brigade, also commanded the volunteers from his regiment 
for the naval expedition, in which every officer and every man 
won for himself imperishable renown. 

" J. Bankead Magruder, Major-Generaiy 

The conduct of Commander Renshaw toward the inhabi- 
tants of Galveston had been marked by moderation and pro- 
priety, and the closing act of his life was one of manly courage 
and fidelity to the flag he bore. 

Commander Wainright and Lieutenant-commanding Lea, 
who fell valiantly defending their ship, were buried in the 
cemetery with the honors of war ; thus was evinced that 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 23 1 

instinctive respect which true warriors always feel for their 
peers. The surviving ofificers were paroled. 

The capture of the enemy's fleet in Galveston Harbor, by 
means so novel as to excite surprise as well as grateful admi- 
ration, was followed by another victory on the coast of Texas, 
under circumstances so remarkable as properly to be considered 
marvellous. To those familiar with the events of that time 
and section, it is hardly necessary to say that I refer to the 
battle of Sabine Pass. 

The strategic importance to the enemy of the possession 
of Sabine River caused the organization of a large expedition 
of land and naval forces to enter and ascend the river. If 
successful, it gave the enemy short lines for operation against 
the interior of Texas. 

The fleet of the enemy numbered twenty-three vessels. 
The forces were estimated to be ten thousand men. No ade- 
quate provision had been made to resist such a force, and, 
under the circumstances, none might have been promptly made 
on which reliance could have been reasonably placed. A few 
miles above the entrance into the Sabine River a small earth- 
work had been constructed, garrisoned at the time of the 
action by forty-two men and two lieutenants, with an arma- 
ment of six guns. The ofificers and men were all Irishmen, 
and the company was called the " Davis Guards," under the 
command of Lieutenant R. W. Dowling. Wishing to perpet- 
uate the history of an affair, in which, I believe, the brave 
garrison did more than an equal force had ever elsewhere per- 
formed, I quote from the publications of the day the main 
facts, as they were then printed in the Texas newspapers. 

From Captain F. H. Odium's ofificial report : " I have 
the honor to report that we had an engagement with the 
enemy yesterday and gained a handsome victory. We cap- 
tured two of their gunboats, crippled a third, and drove the 
rest out of the Pass. We took eighteen fine guns, a quantity 
of smaller arms, ammunition, and stores, killed about fifty, 
wounded several, and took one hundred and fifty prisoners, 
without the loss or injury of anyone on our side, or serious 
damage to the fort." 

From Commodore Leon Smith's official report : " Arriv- 



232 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

ing at the Pass at 3 P.M., I found the enemy off and inside 
the bar, carrying, as well as I could judge, fifteen thousand 
men. I proceeded with Captain Odium to the fort, and found 
Lieutenant Dowling and Lieutenant N. H. Smith, of the en- 
gineer corps, with forty-two men defending the fort. Until 
3 P.M. our men did not open on the enemy, as the range was 
too distant. The officers of the fort coolly held their fire 
until the enemy had approached near enough to reach them. 
But, when the enemy arrived within good range, our batteries 
were opened, and gallantly replied to a galling and most ter- 
rific fire from the enemy. As I entered the fort the gunboats 
Clifton^ Arizona, Sachem, and Granite State, with several 
others, came boldly up to within one thousand yards, and 
opened their batteries, which were gallantly and effectively 
replied to by the Davis Guards. For one hour and thirty 
minutes a most terrific bombardment of grape, canister, and 
shell was directed against our heroic and devoted little band 
within the fort. The shot struck in every direction, but, thanks 
be to God ! not one of the noble Davis Guards was hurt. Too 
much credit cannot be awarded Lieutenant Dowling, who 
displayed the utmost heroism in the discharge of the duty 
assigned him and the defenders of the fort. The honor of the 
country was in their hands, and nobly they sustained it. Every 
man stood at his post, regardless of the murderous fire that 
was poured upon them from every direction. The result of 
the battle, which lasted from 3.30 to 5 P.M., was the captur- 
ing of the Clifton and Sachem, eighteen heavy guns, one 
hundred and fifty prisoners, and the killing and wounding of 
fifty men, and driving outside the bar the enemy's fleet, com- 
prising twenty-three vessels in all." 

The inquiry may naturally arise how this small number of 
men could take charge of so large a body of prisoners. This 
required that to their valor they should add stratagem. A 
few men were placed on the parapet as sentinels, the rest were 
marched out as guard to receive the prisoners and their arms. 
Thus was concealed the fact that the fort was empty. The 
report of the guns bombarding the fort had been heard, and 
soon after the close of the battle reinforcements arrived, which 
relieved the little garrison from its embarrassment. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 233 

At the commencement of the war the Confederacy was 
not only without a navy, all the naval vessels possessed by 
the States havmg been, as explained elsewhere, left in the 
hands of our late associates ; but worse than this was the fact 
that ship-building had been almost exclusively done in the 
Northern States, so that we had no means of acquiring 
equality in naval power. The numerous deep and wide riv- 
ers traversing the Southern States gave a favorable field for 
the operations of gunboats suited to such circumstances The 
enemy rapidly increased their supply of these by building on 
the Western waters, as well as elsewhere, and convertino- ex- 
isting vessels into iron-clad gunboats. The intrepidity and 
devotion of our people met the necessity by new expedients 
and extraordinary daring. This was especially seen in the 
operations in Western Louisiana, where numerous bayous 
and rivers, with dif^cult land-routes, gave an advantage to the 
enemy which might well have paralyzed anything less than 
the most resolute will. 

One by one successful conflicts between river-boats and 
gunboats impaired the estimate which had been put upon the 
latter. The most illustrious example of this was the attack 
and capture of the Indianola, a heavy ironclad, with two 
1 1 -inch guns forward, and two 9-inch aft, all in iron case- 
mates. She had passed the batteries at Vicksburg, and was 
m the section of the river between Vicksburg and Port Hud- 
son, which, in February, 1863, was the only gate of com- 
munication which the Confederacy had between the east and 
west sides of the Mississippi. The importance of keeping 
open this communication, always great, became vital from the 
developed necessity of drawing commissary stores from the 
trans- Mississippi. 

Major Brent, of General Taylor's stafY, proposed, with the 
tow-boat Webb, which had been furnished as a ram, and the 
Queen of the West, which four or five days before had been 
captured by the land-battery at Fort De Russy, to go to the 
Mississippi and attack the hidianola. On the 19th of Febru- 
ary the expedition started, though mechanics were still work- 
ing upon the repairs of the Queen of the West, which were 
needed because of injuries inflicted at the time of her capture. 



234 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The service was so hazardous that only volunteers formed the 
crews, but of these more offered than were wanted. On the 
24th, while ascending the Mississippi, Major Brent learned, 
when about sixty miles below Vicksburg, that the Lidianola 
was a short distance ahead, with a coal-barge lashed on either 
side. He determined to attack in the night, being assured 
that, if struck by a shell from one of the 11- or 9-inch guns, 
either of his boats would be destroyed. At 10 P.M. the Queen^ 
followed by the Webb, was driven at full speed directly upon 
the Indianola. The momentum of the Queen was so great as to 
cut through the coal-barge, and indent the iron plates of the 
Indianola. As the Queen backed out, the Webb dashed in at 
full speed, and tore away the remaining coal-barge. Both the 
forward guns were fired at the Webb, but missed her. Again 
the Queen struck the Indianola, abaft the paddle-box, crush- 
ing her frame and loosening some plates of armor, but received 
the fire of the guns from the rear casemates. One shot carried 
away a dozen bales of cotton on the right side ; the other, a 
shell, entered the forward port-hole and exploded, killing six 
men and disabling two field-pieces. Again the Webb followed 
the (^w^'^'-'^j striking the same spot, pushing aside the iron plates, 
and crushing the timbers. Voices from the Indianola announced 
the surrender, and that she was sinking. The river here sweeps 
the western shore, and there was deep water up to the bank ; 
General Grant's army was on the west side of the river ; and 
for either or both of these reasons Major Brent towed the 
Indianola to the opposite side, where she sank on a bar, her 
gun-deck above water. Both boats were much shattered in 
the conflict, and Major Brent returned to the Red River to 
repair them. A tender accompanied the Queen and the Webb, 
and a frail river-boat, without protection for her boilers, which 
was met on the river, turned back and followed them, but, 
like the tender, could be of no service in the battle. 

The ram Arkansas, which has been previously noticed as 
being under construction at Memphis, was removed before 
she was finished to the Yazoo River, events on the river 
above having rendered this necessary for her security. After 
she was considered ready for service. Commander Brown, 
then as previously in charge of her, went down the Yazoo to 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 235 

enter the Mississippi and proceed to Vicksburg, The enemy's 
fleet of some twelve or thirteen rams, gunboats, and sloops-of- 
war were in the river above Vicksburg, but below the point 
where the Yazoo enters the Mississippi. Anticipating the 
descent of the Arkansas^ a detachment had been made from 
this fleet to prevent her exit. The annexed letter of Com- 
mander Brown describes what occurred in the Yazoo River : 

" Steamer Arkansas, July 15, 1862. 

" General : The Benton, or whatever ironclad we dis- 
abled, was left with colors down, evidently aground to pre- 
vent sinking, about one mile and a half above the mouth of 
the Yazoo (in Old River), on the right-hand bank, or bank 
across from Vicksburg. 

" I wish it to be remembered that we whipped this vessel, 
made it run out of the fight and haul down colors, with two 
less guns than they had ; and at the same time fought two 
rams, which were firing at us with great guns and small-arms ; 
this, too, with our miscellaneous crew, who had never for the 
most part been on board a ship, or at big guns. . . . 

" J. N. Brown." 

When entering the Mississippi the fleet of the enemy was 
found disposed as a phalanx, but the heroic commander of the 
Arkansas moved directly against it ; and though, in passing 
through this formidable array, he was exposed to the broadsides 
of the whole fleet, the vessel received no other injury than from 
one 1 1 -inch shot which entered the gun-room, and the perfo- 
ration in many places of her smoke-stack. The casualties to 
the crew were five killed, four wounded; among the latter 
was the gallant commander. General Van Dorn, command- 
ing the department, in a despatch from Vicksburg, July 15th, 
states the number of the enemy's vessels above Vicksburg, 
pays a high compliment to the officers and men, and adds: 

" All the enemy's transports and all the vessels of war of 
the lower fleet {i.e., the fleet just below Vicksburg), except a 
sloop-of-war< have got up steam, and are off to escape from 
the Arkajtsas.^' 

A vessel inspiring such dread is entitled to a special de- 



236 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

scription. She was an iron-clad steamer, one hundred feet 
in length, her armament ten Parrott guns, and her crew one 
hundred men, who had volunteered from the land forces for 
the desperate service proposed. Her commander had been 
from his youth in the navy of the United States, and his 
capacity was such as could well supplement whatever was 
wanted of naval knowledge in his crew. The care and skill 
with which the vessel had been constructed were tested arrd 
proved under fire. Had her engines been equal to the hull 
and armor of the vessel, it is difficult to estimate the value of 
the service she might have performed. At this period the 
enemy occupied Baton Rouge, with gunboats lying in front 
of it to co-operate with the troops in the town. The impor- 
tance of holding a section of the Mississippi, so as to keep free 
communication, has been heretofore noticed. To this end it 
was deemed needful to recover possession of Baton Rouge, and 
it was decided to make a land attack in co-operation with the 
Arkansas, to be sent down against the enemy's fleet. 

Major-General J. C. Breckinridge was assigned to the com- 
mand of the land forces. This distinguished citizen and alike 
distinguished soldier, surmounting difficulties which would 
have discouraged a less resolute spirit, approached Baton 
Rouge, and moved to the attack at the time indicated for the 
arrival of \.\\q Arkansas. In his address to the officers and sol- 
diers of his command, after the battle, viz., on August 6, 1862, 
he complimented the troops on the fortitude with which they 
had borne a severe march, on the manner in which they at- 
tacked the enemy, superior in numbers and admirably posted, 
drove him from his positions, taking his camps, and forcing 
him to seek protection under cover of the guns of his fleet. 
Major-General Breckinridge attributed his failure to achieve 
entire success to the inability of the Arkansas to co-operate 
with his forces, and adds : 

" You have given the enemy a severe and salutary lesson, 
and now those who so lately were ravaging and plundering 
this region do not care to extend their pickets beyond the 
sight of their fleet." 

The Arkansas in descending the river moved leisurely, 
having ample time to meet her appointment; but, when about 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 237 

fifteen miles above Baton Rouge, her starboard engine broke 
down. Repairs were immediately commenced, and by 8 a.m. 
on the 5th of August were partially completed. General 
Breckinridge had commenced the attack at four o'clock, and 
the Arkansas, though not in condition to engage the enemy, 
moved on, and when in sight of Baton Rouge her starboard 
engine again broke down, and the vessel was run ashore. 
The work of repair was resumed, and next morning the 
Federal fleet was seen coming up. The Arkansas was moored 
head down-stream, and cleared for action. The Essex ap- 
proached and opened fire. At that moment the engineers re- 
ported the engines able to work half a day ; the lines were 
cut, and the Arkansas started for the Essex, when the other 
— the larboard — engine suddenly stopped, and the vessel was 
again secured to the shore, stern -down. The Essex now val- 
iantly approached, pouring a hot fire into her disabled antag- 
onist. Lieutenant Stevens, then commanding the Arkansas, 
ordered the crew ashore, fired the vessel, and, with her flag 
flying, turned her .adrift — a sacrificial offering to the cause she 
had served so valiantly in her brief but brilliant career. Lieu- 
tenant Reed, of the ram Arkansas, in his published account 
of the affair, states, " After all hands were ashore, the Essex 
fired upon the disabled vessel most furiously." 



238 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE CONFEDERATE NAVY ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

To maintain the position assumed by the Confederate 
States, as a separate power among the nations, it was ob- 
viously necessary to have a navy, not only for the defence of 
their coast, but for the protection of their commerce. These 
States, after their secession from the Union, were, in that re- 
gard, in a destitute condition, similar to that of the United 
States after their Declaration of Independence. 

It has been shown that, among the first acts of the Con- 
federate Administration was the effort to buy ships which 
could be used for naval purposes. The policy of the United 
States Government being to shut up our commerce, rather 
than protect their own, induced the wholesale purchase of 
vessels found in the Northern ports — not only such as could 
be made fit for cruisers, but also any which would serve even 
for blockading purposes. There was little shipping of any 
kind in the Southern ports, and to that scanty supply we 
were, for the time, restricted. 

A previous reference has been made to the Sumter^ Com- 
mander Raphael Semmes, but a more extended notice is 
considered due. 

Educated in the naval service of the United States, 
Raphael Semmes had attained the rank of commander, and 
was distinguished for his studious habits and varied acquire- 
ments. When Alabama passed her ordinance of secession 
he was on duty at Washington as a member of the Light- 
house Board. He promptly tendered his resignation, and, at 
the organization of the Confederate Government, repaired to 
Montgomery and tendered his services to it. The efforts 
which had been made to obtain steamers suited to cruising 
against the enemy's commerce had been quite unsuccessful, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 239 

none being found which the naval officers charged with their 
selection regarded fit for the service. One of the reports de- 
scribed a small propeller-steamer, of five hundred tons burden, 
sea-going, low-pressure engine, sound, and capable of being so 
strengthened as to carry an ordinary batteiy of four or five 
guns ; speed between nine and ten knots ; but the board con- 
demned her because she could carry but five days' fuel, and 
had no accommodations for the crew. 

The Secretary of the Navy showed this report to Com- 
modore Semmes, who said : " Give me that ship ; I think I 
can make her answer the purpose." She was christened the 
Siunter, in commemoration of our first victory, and had 
the honor of being the first ship of war commissioned by the 
Confederates States, and the first to display the stars and 
bars of the Confederacy on the high seas. The Sumter was 
at New Orleans, to which place Commodore Semmes re- 
paired ; and, as forcibly presenting the difficulties under which 
we labored in all attempts to create a navy, I will quote from 
his " Memoirs " the account of his efforts to get the Sumter 
ready for sea : 

" I now took my ship actively in hand, and set gangs of 
mechanics at work to remove her upper cabins and other top 
hamper, preparatory to making the necessary alterations. 
These latter were considerable, and I soon found that I had a 
tedious job on my hands. It was no longer the case, as it 
had been in former years, when I had had occasion to fit out a 
ship, that I could go into a navy-yard, with well-provided 
workshops and skilled workmen, ready with all the requisite 
materials at hand to execute my orders. Everything had to 
be improvised, from the manufacture of a water-tank to the 
kids and cans of the berth-deck messes, and from a gun-car- 
riage to a friction-primer. . . . Two long, tedious months 
were consumed in making alterations and additions. My bat- 
tery was to consist of an 8-inch shell-gun, to be pivoted amid- 
ships, and of four light 32-pounders, of thirteen hundred 
weight each, in broadside." 

On the 3d of June, 1861, the Sumter was formally put in 
commission, and a muster-roll of the officers and men trans- 
mitted to the Navy Department. On the 18th of June she 



240 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

left New Orleans and steamed down and anchored near the 
mouth of the river. While lying at the head of the passes, the 
commander reported a blockading squadron outside, of three 
ships at Passe a I'Outre, and one at the Southwest Pass. The 
Brooklyti, at Passe a I'Outre, was not only a powerful vessel, 
but she had greater speed than the Sumter. The PowhatarCs 
heavy armament made it very hazardous to pass her in day- 
light, and the absence of buoys and lights made it next to im- 
possible to keep the channel in darkness. The Sumter, there- 
fore, had been compelled to lie at the head of the passes and 
watch for some opportunity, in the absence of either the 
Brooklyyi or the Powhatan, to get to sea. Fortunately neither 
of these vessels came up to the head of the passes, where, 
there being but a single channel, it would have been easy to 
prevent the exit of the Sumter. 

On the 30th of June, one bright morning, a boatman re- 
ported that the Brooklyn had gone off in chase of a sail. 
Immediately the Sumter was got under way, when it was 
soon discovered that the Brooklyn Avas returning, and that 
the two vessels were about equally distant from the bar. By 
steady courage and rare seamanship the Sumter escaped from 
her swifter pursuer, and entered on her career of cutting the 
enemy's sinews of war by destroying his commerce. 

Numerous armed vessels of the enemy were hovering on 
our coast, yet this one little cruiser created a general alarm, 
and, though a regularly commissioned vessel of the Confed- 
eracy, was habitually denounced as a " pirate." 

During her cruise, up to January 17, 1862, she captured 
three ships, five brigs, six barks, and three schooners ; but the 
property destroyed formed a very small part of the damage 
done to the enemy's commerce. Her appearance on the 
seas created such alarm that Northern ships were, to a large 
extent, put under foreign flags, and the carrying-trade, in which 
the United States stood second only to Great Britain, passed 
rapidly into other hands. The Sumter, while doing all this 
mischief, was nearly self-sustaining, her running expenses to 
the Confederate Government being but $28,000 when, at the 
close of 1 861, she arrived at Gibraltar. Not being able to 
obtain coal, she remained there until sold. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 241 

Captain James D. Bullock, an officer of the old navy, of 
high ability as a seaman, and of an integrity which stood the 
test under which a less stern character might have given 
way, was our naval agent at Liverpool, In his office he 
disbursed millions, and, while there was no one to whom 
he could be required to render an account, paid out the last 
shilling in his hands, and confronted poverty without prospect 
of other reward than that which he might find in a clear con- 
science. He contracted with the Messrs. Laird, of Birken- 
head, to build a strong steam merchant-ship — the same which 
was afterward christened \.\\q Alabama when, in a foreign port, 
she had received her armament and crew. 

There was no secrecy about the building of the Ala- 
bama. She was frequently visited while under construction, 
and it is known that the British Government was applied 
to to prevent her from leaving port. It was feared that she 
might be delayed ; but it was not considered possible that the 
British authorities would prevent an unarmed merchant-ship 
from leaving her coast, lest she might elsewhere procure an 
armament, and, in the service of a recognized belligerent, re- 
vive the terror in the other belligerent which the little Sumter 
had recently inspired. 

When the Alabama was launched and ready for sea. Cap- 
tain Bullock summoned Captain Semmes. The Alabama, 
then known as the 290, had proceeded a few days previously 
to her rendezvous, the Portuguese island Terceira, one of the 
group of the Azores. The story that the name 290 was given 
to her because she had been built by two hundred and ninety 
Englishmen, sympathizers in our struggle, was a mere fiction. 
She was built under a contract with the Confederate States, and 
paid for with Confederate money. She happened to be the 
two hundred and ninetieth ship built by the Lairds, and, not 
having been christened, was called 290. Captain Semmes 
followed her, accompanied by Captain Bullock, on the steamer 
Bahama, and found her at the place of rendezvous ; also a sail- 
ing-ship which had been despatched before the Alabama 
with her battery and stores. Captain Semmes, with a sailor's 
enthusiasm, describes his first impression on seeing the ship 
which was to be his future home. The defects of the Siimtcr 
16 



242 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

had been avoided, so that he found his new ship " a perfect 
steamer and a perfect sailing-ship at the same time, neither 
of her two modes of locomotion being at all dependent upon 
the other. . . . She was about nine hundred tons burden, 
two hundred and thirty feet in length, thirty-two feet in 
breadth, twenty feet in depth, and drew, when provisioned 
and coaled for a cruise, fifteen feet of water. Her model was of 
the most perfect symmetry, and she sat upon the water with the 
lightness and grace of a swan." She was yet only a merchant- 
ship, and the men on board of her, as well as those who came 
out with the captain on the Bahama, were only under articles 
for the voyage. She therefore had no crew for future service. 
When her armament and stores had been put on board, she 
steamed from the harbor out to the open sea, where she was 
to be christened and put in commission. The scantling was 
comparatively light, the vessel having been intended as a 
scourge to the enemy's commerce rather than for battle, and 
merely to defend herself if it became necessary. Her masts 
were proportioned so as to carry large canvas, and her engine 
was of three hundred horse-power, with an apparatus for con- 
densing vapor to supply the crew with all the fresh water re- 
quisite. The coal, stores, and armament having been received 
from the supply-ships, she steamed out to sea on Sunday 
morning, August 24, 1862. There, more than a marine league 
from the shore, on the blue water over which man holds no 
empire, Captain Semmes read the commission of the President 
of the Confederacy appointing him a captain, and the order of 
the Secretary of the Navy assigning him to the command of 
the Alabama. There, where nogovernment held jurisdiction, 
where the commission of the Confederacy was as valid as that 
of any power, the Alabama was christened ; and she was thence- 
forth a ship of war in the navy of the Confederate States. The 
men who had come thus far under articles no longer binding 
were left to their option whether to be paid off, with a free 
passage to Liverpool, or to enlist in the crew of the Alabama. 
Eighty of the men who had come out in the several vessels 
enrolled themselves in the usual manner. Captain Semmes 
had a full complement of officers, and with this, though less 
than the authorized crew, he commenced his long and brilliant 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 



243 



cruise. The ship's armament consisted of six 32-pounders 
in broadsides, and two pivot-guns amidships, one of them a 
smooth-bore 8-inch, the other a lOO-pounder rifled Blakely. 

Captain Semmes, from his varied knowledge of affairs both 
on sea and land, did not sail by chance in quest of adventure, 
but directed his course to places where the greatest number 
of the enemy's merchantmen were likely to be found ; and to 
this line of action the large number of captures he made is in 
no small degree attributable. On board one of the ships cap- 
tured they got New York papers, from which he learned that 
General Banks, with a large fleet of transports, was to sail on 
a certain day for Galveston. On this he decided to go to the 
rendezvous appointed for his coal-ship, and make all due prep- 
aration for a dash into the fleet when they should arrive at the 
harbor of Galveston, and he therefore directed his course into 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

In the meantime General Magruder had recaptured Gal- 
veston ; so, on his arrival, the lookout informed him that, 
instead of a fleet, there were five ships of war blockading the 
harbor and throwing shells into the town, from which he 
drew the conclusion that we had possession of the town, and 
that he was confronted by ships of war, not transport? laden 
with troops. As each of the five ships observed by the look- 
out was supposed to be larger than his own, he had no dis- 
position to run into that fleet. It therefore only remained to 
tempt one of the ships to follow him beyond supporting dis- 
tance. The hope was soon realized, as a vessel was seen to 
come out from the fleet. The Alabama was under sail, and 
Captain Semmes says : " To carry out my design of decoying 
the enemy, I now wore ship as though I were fleeing from his 
pursuit, and lowered the propeller into the water. When 
about twenty miles from the fleet, the Alabama was prepared 
for action, and wheeled to meet her pursuer. To the first hail 
made, the answer from \h& Alabama was, ' This is her Britannic 
Majesty's steamer Petrel; ' and the answer was ' This is the 

United States ship ,' name not heard." Captain Semmes 

then directed the first lieutenant to call out through his 
trumpet, " This is the Confederate States steamer Alabama" 
A broadside was instantly returned by the enemy. Captain 



244 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Semmes describes the state of the atmosphere as highly fa- 
vorable to the conduct of sound, and the wind as blowing in 
the direction of the enemy's fleet. The Federal Admiral, as 
afterward learned, immediately got under way with the Brook- 
lyn and two others of his steamers to go to the rescue. The 
crews of both ships must have been standing at their guns, as 
the broadsides so instantly followed each other. In thirteen 
minutes after firing the first gun the enemy hoisted a light 
and fired an off gun as a signal that he had been beaten. 
Captain Semmes steamed quite close to the Hatteras, and 
asked if he had surrendered ; then, if he was in want of as- 
sistance. An affirmative answer was given to both questions. 
The boats of the Alabama were lowered with such promptitude 
and handled with such care that, though the Hatteras was 
sunk at night, none of her crew was drowned. When her 
captain came on board Captain Semmes learned that he had 
been engaged with the United States steamer Hatteras, " a 
larger ship than the Alabama by one hundred tons," with an 
equal number of guns, and a crew numbering two less than 
that of the Alabama. There was " considerable disparity be- 
tween the two ships in the weight of their pivot-guns, and the 
Alabama ought to have won the fight, which she did in thir- 
teen minutes." The Alabama had received no appreciable 
injury, and, continuing her cruise to the island of Jamaica, 
entered the harbor of Port Royal, where, by the permission of 
the authorities, Captain Semmes landed his prisoners, putting 
them on parole. 

As an answer to the stereotyped charges against Captain 
Semmes as a " pirate " and " robber," I will select from the 
many unarmed ships captured by him one case. He had gone 
to the track of the California steamers between Aspinwall and 
New York, in the hope of capturing a vessel homeward bound 
with Government treasure. On the morning before such a 
vessel was expected a large steamer, the Ariel, was seen, but 
unfortunately not going in the right direction. An exciting 
chase occurred, when she was finally brought to, but, instead 
of the million of dollars in her safe, she was outward bound, 
with a large number of women and children on board. A 
boarding officer was sent on her, and returned, giving an ac- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 245 

count of great alarm, especially among the ladies. Captain 
Semmes sent a lieutenant on board to assure them that they 
had " fallen into the hands of Southern gentlemen, under 
whose protection they were entirely safe." Among the pas- 
sengers were a battalion of marines and some army and navy 
officers. These were all paroled, rank and file numbering one 
hundred and forty, and the vessel was released on ransom- 
bond. Captain Semmes states that there Avere five hundred 
passengers on board. It is fair to presume that each passenger 
had with him a purse of from three to five hundred dollars. 
Under the laws of war all this money would have been good 
prize, but not one dollar of it was touched, or so much as a 
passenger's baggage examined. 

The Alabama now proceeded to run down the Spanish 
Main, thence bore eastward into the Indian Ocean, and, after 
a cruise into every sea where a blow at American commerce 
could be struck, came back around the Cape of Good Hope, 
and, sailing north, ran up to the thirtieth parallel, where so 
many captures had been made at a former time. Of the ship 
at this date Captain Semmes wrote : " The poor old Alabama 
\vas not now what she had been then. She was like the 
wearied fox-hound, limping back after a long chase, footsore, 
and longing for quiet repose." 

" She had, in her mission to cripple the enemy's commerce 
and cut his sinews of war, captured sixty-three vessels, among 
them one of the enemy's gunboats, the Haitcras, sunk in bat- 
tle, had released nine under ransom-bond, and had paroled all 
prisoners taken." 

All neutral ports being closed against her prizes, the rest 
of the vessels were, of necessity, burned at sea. Much com- 
plaint was made on account of the burning of these mer- 
chantmen, though very little reflection would have taught 
the complainants that the interest of the captor would have 
induced him to save the vessels, and send them into the 
nearest port for condemnation as prizes; and, therefore, 
whatever grievance existed was the result of the blockade 
and of the rule which prevented the captures from being 
sent into a neutral port to await the decision of a prize- 
court. 



246 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

On the morning of the nth of June, 1864, the Alabama 
entered the harbor of Cherbourg. 

"An officer was sent to call on the port-admiral and ask 
leave to land the prisoners from the last two ships captured ; 
this was readily granted." 

The next day Captain Semmes went on shore to consult 
the port-admiral " in relation to docking and repairing " the 
Alabama. As there were only government docks at Cher- 
bourg, the application had to be referred to the Emperor.- 
Before an answer was received, the Kearsarge steamed into 
the harbor, sent a boat ashore, and then ran out and took her 
station off the breakwater. Captain Semmes learned that 
the boat from the Kearsarge sent on shore had borne a request 
that the prisoners discharged from the Alabama might be 
delivered to the Kearsarge. It will be remembered that the 
Government of the United States, in many harsh and unjust 
phrases, had refused to recognize the Alabama as a ship of 
war, and held that the paroles given to her were void. This 
request was therefore regarded by Captain Semmes as an 
attempt to recruit for the Kearsarge from the prisoners lately 
landed by the Alabama, and he so presented the facts to the 
port-admiral, who rejected the application from the Kearsarge. 

Captain Semmes sent notice to Captain Winslow, of the 
Kearsarge, whose presence in the offing was regarded as a 
challenge, that, if he would wait until the Alabama could 
receive some coal on board, she would come out and give him 
a battle. 

As he had shown by extracts previously made, Captain 
Semmes knew that, after his long cruise, the Alabama needed 
to go into dock for repairs. It had not been possible for him, on 
account of the rigid enforcement of " neutrality," to replenish 
his ammunition. Unless nitre is more thoroughly purified 
than is usually, if ever, done by those who manufacture for an 
open market, it is sure to retain nitrate of soda, and the pow- 
der, of which it is the important ingredient, to deteriorate by 
long exposure to a moist atmosphere. The Kearsarge was 
superior to the Alabama in size and, having been built for 
war, in stanchness of construction ; her armament was also 
greater, if measured, not by the number of guns, but by 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 247 

the amount of metal she could throw at a broadside. The 
crew of the Kcarsarge, all told, was 162; that of the Ala- 
bama, 149. Captain Semmes says : " Still, the disparity was 
not so great but that I might hope to beat my enemy in 
a fair fight. But he did not show me a fair fight ; for, as it 
afterward turned out, his ship was iron-clad." This expression 
*' iron-clad " refers to the fact that \}i\Q Kcarsarge had chains on 
her sides, which Captain Semmes describes as concealed by 
planking, the forward and after ends of which so accorded with 
the lines of the ship as not to be detected by telescopic observa- 
tion. Many of that class of critics whose wisdom is only re- 
vealed after the event have blamed Captain Semmes for going 
out under the circumstances. Like most other questions, there 
are two sides to this one. If he had gone into dock for repairs, 
the time required would have resulted in the dispersion of his 
crew, and, from the known improvidence of sailors, it would 
have been more than doubtful whether they could have been 
reassembled. It was, moreover, probable that other vessels 
would have been sent to aid the Kearsarge in effectually 
blockading the port, so that, if his crew had returned, the 
only chance would have been to escape through the guarding 
fleet. Proud of his ship, and justly confiding in his crew, 
surely something will be conceded to the Confederate spirit so 
often exhibited and so often triumphant over disparity of force. 

On the 19th of June, 1864, the Alabama left the harbor 
of Cherbourg to engage the Kcarsarge, which had been ly- 
ing off and on the port for several days previously. Captain 
Semmes in his report of the engagement writes : 

"After the lapse of about one hour and ten minutes our 
ship was ascertained to be in a sinking condition ... to 
reach the French coast, I gave the ship all steam, and set such 
of the fore and aft sails as were available. The ship filled so 
rapidly, however, that, before we had made much progress, 
the fires were extinguished. I now hauled down my colors, 
and despatched a boat to inform the enemy of our condition. 
Although we were now but four hundred yards from each 
other, the enemy fired upon me five times after my colors had 
been struck. It is charitable to suppose that a ship of war of 
a Christian nation could not have done this intentionally." 



248 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Captain Semmes states that, his waist-boats having been 
torn to pieces, he sent the wounded, and such of the boys of 
the ship as could not swim, in his quarter-boats, off to the 
enemy's ship, and as there was no appearance of any boat 
coming from the enemy, the crew, as previously instructed, 
jumped overboard, each to save himself if he could. All the 
wounded— twenty-one— were saved. Ten of the crew were 
ascertained to have been drowned. Captain Semmes stood 
on the quarter-deck until his ship was settling to go down, 
then threw his sword into the sea, there to lie buried with the 
ship he loved so well, and leaped from the deck just in time 
to avoid being drawn down into the vortex created by her 
sinking. He and many of his crew were picked up by a 
humane English gentleman in the boats of his yacht, the 
Deerhound. Others were saved by two French pilot-boats 
which were near the scene. The remainder, it is hoped, were 
picked up by the enemy. Captain Semmes states in his 
official report, two days after the battle, that about the time 
of his rescue by the Deerhound the " Kearsarge sent one, and 
then, tardily, another boat." The reader is invited to compare 
this with the conduct of Captain Semmes in his fight with 
the Hatteras, when, though it was in the night, by ranging 
up close to her, and promptly using all his boats, he saved 
her entire crew. 

Mention has been made of the defective ammunition of 
the Alabama, and in that connection I quote the following 
passage from Captain Semmes's book : 

" I lodged a rifle percussion-shell near to her [the Kear- 
sarge" s\ sternpost— w/z^r^ there were no c//«z«^— which failed 
to explode because of the defect of the cap. If the cap had 
performed its duty, and exploded the shell, I should have 
been called upon to save Captain Winslow's crew from drown- 
ing, instead of his being called upon to save mine." 

As it appears by the same authority that the Kearsarge 
had greater speed than the Alabama, it followed that, though 
the captain of the Kearsarge might have closed with and 
boarded the Alabama, the captain of the Alabama could not 
board the Kearsarge, unless by consent. 

The Alabama, built like a merchant-ship, sailed in peaceful 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 249 

garb from British waters, on a far-distant sea received her 
crew and armament, fitted for operations against the enemy's 
commerce. On ''blue water » she was chrltened, and in the 
same she was buned. She lived the pride of her friends and 
the terror of her enemies. She went out to fight a wood n 
vessel, and was sunk by one clad in secret armor 

Those of the crew rescued by the Dcerhound v.'^r^ landed 
at Southampton, England. ^anuea 

AT ^rl ^f't ^''''! ^°^^^"'^ent then, through its minister 
Mr. Charles Francis Adams, made the absurd demand of the 
Knghsh Government that they should be delivered up to her 
as escaped prisoners. With this demand Lord John Russell 
declmed to comply. vubbeii 

The Orcto, which sailed from Liverpool about the 23d of 
March, 1862, was, while under construction at Liverpool the 
subject of diplomatic correspondence and close scrutiny bv 
the custom officers. After her arrival off Nassau, upon repre- 
sentations by the United States consul at that port she was 
detained and again examined ; and it being found that she 
had none of the character of a vessel of war, she was released 
^aptam Maffitt, who had gone out with a cargo of cotton 
here received a letter which authorized him to take charc^e of 
the Orcto, and get her promptly to sea. She was a steamer 
of two hundred and fifty horse-power, tonnage 560, bark- 
rigged ; speed, under steam, eight to nine knots ; with sail 
in a fresh breeze, fourteen knots ; crew 22, all told The 
Ignited States Minister, Mr. Adams, had made a report to 
the British Government, which, it was apprehended, would 
cause her seizure at once. This was soon effected, and with 
great difficulty the vessel was saved to the Confederacy by her 
commander. She arrived at Nassau on the 28th of April and 
was detained until the session of the Admiralty Court in 
August. As soon as discharged by the proceedings therein 
she sailed for the uninhabited island Green Kay, ninety 
miles to the southward of Providence Island, with a tender in 
tow having equipments provided by a Confederate merchant, 
where she anchored the next day, and proceeded to take on 
board her military armament sent out on the tender. She 
now became a ship of the Confederate navy, and was chris- 



250 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

tened Florida. Her long detention in Nassau had caused the 
ship to be infected with yellow fever, and, as she had no sur- 
geon on board, the vessel was directed to the island of Cuba, 
and ran into the harbor of Cardenas for aid. The crew was re- 
duced to one fireman and two seamen, and eventually the cap- 
tain was prostrated by the fever. The Governor of Cardenas 
refused to send a physician aboard, and warned the steamer 
that she must leave in twenty-four hours. Lieutenant Strib- 
ling, executive officer of the ship, had been sent to Havana to 
report her condition to the Captain-General, Marshal Serrano. 
That chivalrous gentleman, soldier, and statesman at once 
invited the ship to the hospitalities of the harbor of Havana, 
whither she repaired, and where she received the kindness 
which her forlorn situation required. 

On the ist of September, 1862, the vessel left Havana to 
obtain a crew and to complete her equipment, which was so 
imperfect that her guns could not all be used. The vessel 
was directed to the harbor of Mobile. On approaching that 
harbor she found several blockading vessels on the station, 
and boldly ran through them, escaping, with considerable in- 
jury to her masts and rigging, to the friendly shelter of Fort 
Morgan. 

In the meantime the blockading squadron had been in- 
creased, with the boastful announcement that the cruiser 
should be "hermetically sealed" in the harbor of Mobile. 
After the vessel was ready for sea some impatience was mani- 
fested that she did not go out; but Captain Maf¥itt, with 
sound judgment and nautical skill, decided to wait for a win- 
ter storm and a dark night before attempting to pass through 
the close investment. When the opportunity offered, he 
steamed out into a rough sea and a fierce north wind. As he 
passed the blockading squadron he was for the first time dis- 
covered, when a number of vessels gave chase, and continued 
the pursuit throughout the next day. In the next evening all 
except the two fastest had hauled off, and, as night again 
closed in, the smoke and canvas of the Florida furnished their 
only guide. Captain Mafifitt thus describes the ruse by which 
he finally escaped : 

" The canvas was secured in long, neat bunts to the yards, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 2$ I 

and the engines were stopped. Between high, toppling seas, 
clear daylight was necessary to enable them to distinguish our 
low hull. In eager pursuit the Federals swiftly passed us, and 
we jubilantly bade the enemy good-night, and steered to the 
northward," 

She was now fairly on the high seas, and after long and 
vexatious delays entered on her mission to cruise against 
the enemy's commerce. She commenced her captures in the 
Gulf of Mexico, then progressed through the Gulf of Flor- 
ida to the latitude of New York, and thence to the equator, 
continuing to 12° south, and returned again within thirty 
miles of New York. When near Cape St. Roque, Cap- 
tain Mafifitt * captured a Baltimore brig, the Clarence, and 
fitted her out as a tender. He placed on her Lieutenant C. 
W. Read, commander, 14 men, armed with muskets, pistols, 
and a 12-pound howitzer. The instructions were to proceed 
to the coast of America, to cruise against the enemy's com- 
merce. Under these orders the Clarence destroyed many 
Federal vessels. 

While under the command of Captain Maffitt, the Flor- 
ida, with her tenders, captured some fifty-five vessels, many 
of which were of great value. The Florida being built of 
light timbers, her very active cruising so deranged her ma- 
chinery that it was necessary to go into some friendly har- 
bor for repairs. Captain Mafifitt says : " I selected Brest, and 
the Government courteously consenting to the Florida having 
the facilities of the navy-yard, she was promptly docked." 
The effects of the yellow fever from which he had suffered, 
and the fatigue attending his subsequent service, had so ex- 
hausted his strength that he asked to be relieved from com- 
mand of the ship. In compliance with the request, Captain 
C. M. Morris was ordered to relieve him. 

After completing all needful repairs Captain Morris pro- 
ceeded to sea and sighted the coast of Virginia, where he made 
a number of important captures. Turning from that locality he 
crossed the equator, destroying the commerce of the Northern 
States on his route to Bahia. Here he obtained coal, and had 
also some repairs done to the engines, when the United States 
steamship Wachiisett entered the harbor. Not knowing what 



2 52 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

act of treachery might be attempted by her commander on the 
first night after his arrival, the Florida was kept in a watchful 
condition for battle. 

This belligerent demonstration in the peaceful harbor of 
a neutral power alarmed both the governor and the admiral, 
who demanded assurance that the sovereignty of Brazil and 
its neutrality should be strictly observed by both parties. 
The pledge was given. In the evening, with a chivalric belief 
in the honor of the United States commander, Captain Mor- 
ris unfortunately permitted a majority of his officers to accom- 
pany him to the opera, and also allowed two-thirds of the crew 
to visit the shore on leave. About one o'clock in the morning 
the WacJmsett was surreptitiously got underway, and her com- 
mander, with utter disregard of his word of honor, ran into 
the i7(3rz^«, discharging his battery and boarding her. The 
few ofificers on board and the small number of men were 
unable to resist this unexpected attack, and the Florida fell 
an easy prey to this covert and dishonorable assault. She 
was towed to sea amid the execrations of the Brazilian forces, 
army and navy, who, completely taken by surprise, fired a few 
ineffectual shots at the infringer upon the neutrality of the 
hospitable port of Bahia. The Confederate was taken to 
Hampton Roads. 

Brazil instantly demanded her restoration intact to her 
late anchorage in Bahia. Mr. Lincoln was confronted by a 
protest from the different representatives of the courts of 
Europe, denouncing this extraordinary breach of national 
neutrality, which placed the government of the United States 
in a most unenviable position. Mr, Seward, with his usual 
diplomatic insincerity and machiavelism, characteristically 
prevaricated, while he plotted with a distinguished admiral 
as to the most adroit method of disposing of the "ele- 
phant." The result of these plottings was that an engineer 
was placed in charge of the stolen steamer, with positive or- 
ders to " open her sea-cock at midnight, and not to leave the 
engine-room until the water was up to his chin, as at sunrise 
tJie Florida must be at the bottom." 

The following note was sent to the Brazilian charge d'af- 
faires by Mr. Seward : 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 253 

" While awaiting the representations of the Brazilian Gov- 
ernment, on the 28th of November she (the Florida) sank, 
owing to a leak, which could not be seasonably stopped. The 
leak was at first represented to have been caused, or at least 
increased, by collision with a war-transport. Orders were 
immediately given to ascertain the manner and circumstances 
of the occurrence. It seemed to affect the army and navy. A 
naval court of inquiry and also a military court has submitted 
Its report, and a copy thereof is here communicated. . 
It is assumed that the loss of the Florida was in consequence 
of some unforeseen accident, which casts no responsibility on 
the Government of the United States." 

The restitution of the ship having thus become impossible, 
the President expressed his regret that " the sovereignty of 
Brazil had been violated ; dismissed the consul at Bahia, who 
had advised the ofTence ; and sent the commander of the 
Wachusett before a court-martial." * 

The commander of the WacJmsett experienced no annoy- 
ance, and was soon made an admiral. 

The Georgia was the next Confederate cruiser that Cap- 
tain Bullock succeeded in sending forth. She was of 560 
tons, and was fitted out on the coast of France. Her com- 
mander, W. L. Maury, Confederate States Navy, cruised 
in the North and South Atlantic with partial success. The 
capacity of the vessel in speed and other essentials was en- 
tirely inadequate to the service for Avhich she was designed. 
She proceeded as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and returned, 
after having captured seven ships and two barks. Then she 
was laid up and sold. 

The Shcfiaudoah, once the Sea-King^ was purchased by 
Captain Bullock, and placed under the command of Lieuten- 
ant-commanding J. J. Waddell, who fitted her for service, un- 
der many difificulties, at the barren island of Porto Santo, near 
Madeira. After experiencing great annoyances through the 
activity of the American consul at Melbourne, Australia, Cap- 
tain Waddell finally departed, and commenced an active and 
effective cruise against American shipping in the Okhotsk Sea 

* M. Bernard's Neutrality of Great Britain during the American CiviJ War. 



2 54 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

and Arctic Ocean. In August, 1865, hearing of the close of 
the war, he ceased his pursuit of United States commerce, 
sailed for Liverpool, England, and surrendered his ship to the 
English Government, which transferred it to the Government 
of the United States. The ShcnaJidoak was a full-rigged ship 
of 800 tons, very fast under canvas. Her steam-power was 
merely auxiliary. 

This was the last, but not the first appearance of the Con- 
federate flag in Great Britain. The first vessel of the Confed- 
erate Government which unfurled it there was the swift, light 
steamer Nashville, R. B. Pegram, commander. Having been 
constructed as a passenger-vessel, and mainly with reference to 
speed and the light draught suited to the navigation of the 
Southern harbors, she was quite too frail for war purposes and 
too lightly armed for combat. 

On her passage to Europe and bacR she destroyed two 
merchantmen. Nearing the harbor on her return voyage she 
found it blockaded, and a heavy vessel lying close on her track. 
Her daring commander headed directly for the vessel, and 
ran so close under her guns that she was not suspected in her 
approach, and had passed so far before the guns could be 
depressed to bear upon her that none of the shots took 
effect. Being little more than a shell, a single shot would 
have sunk her; and she was indebted to the address of her 
commander and the speed of his vessel for her escape. Wholly 
unsuited for naval warfare, this voyage terminated her career. 

A different class of vessels than those adapted to the open 
sea was employed for coastwise cruising. In the month 
of July, 1864, a swift twin-screw propeller, called the At- 
lanta, of 600 tons burden, was purchased by the Secretary of 
the Navy, and fitted out in the harbor of Wilmington, N. 
C, for a cruise against the commerce of the Northern 
States. Commander J. Taylor Wood, an ofificer of extraor- 
dinary ability and enterprise, was ordered to command her, 
and her name was changed to the Tallahassee. This ex- 
temporaneous man-of-war ran safely through the blockade, 
and soon lit up the New England coast with her captures, 
which consisted of two ships, four brigs, four barks, and 
twenty schooners. Great was the consternation among North- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 255 

ern merchants. The construction of the Tallahassee, exclu- 
sively for steam, made her dependent on coal ; her cruise was 
of course brief, but it was brilliant while it lasted. 

About the same time another fast double-screw propeller 
of 585 tons, called the Edith, ran into Wilmington, N. C, 
and the Navy Department, requiring her services,' bought 
her and gave to her the name of Chickamauga. A suitable 
battery was placed on board, with officers and crew, and Com- 
mander John Wilkinson, a gentleman of consummate naval 
ability, was ordered to command her. When ready for sea 
he ran the blockade under the bright rays of a full moon. 
Strange to say, the usually alert sentinels neither hailed nor 
halted her. Like the Tallahassee, though partially rigged for 
sailing, she was exclusively dependent upon steam in the 
chase, escape, and all important evolutions. She captured 
seven vessels, despite the above-noticed defects. 



256 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

FEDERAL APPEALS TO EUROPE I^IOT TO AID "PIRATES." 

The excitement produced in the North by the effective 
operations of our cruisers compelled the attention of the Fed- 
eral Government to the subject. It might have been ex- 
pected that they would have sought, by their great fleets, to 
protect their commerce on the high sees by capturing or driv- 
ing off our light cruisers ; but, instead of doing so, their ships 
of war were employed in blockading our ports or watching 
those of the West Indies, from which blockaders were ex- 
pected to sail. Shameful as was this dereliction of duty, 
this failure to protect commerce, there was a still more humil- 
iating feature in the conduct of the Federal Government. 

While the Confederacy was regarded by the Federal State 
Department as an insurrection soon to be suppressed, and the 
cruisers regularly commissioned by the Confederate States 
were called " pirates," diplomatic demands were made upon 
Great Britain to prevent the so-called " pirates " from violat- 
ing international law, as if it applied to pirates. Appeals to 
that Government were also made to prevent the sale of 
materials of war to the Confederacy, and thus indirectly aid 
the United States in performing what, according to its own 
declaration, was a mere police duty — to suppress a combina- 
tion of some evil-disposed persons — gallantly claiming that 
they, armed cap-a-pie, should meet their adversary in the lists, 
he to be without helmet, shield, or lance. 

To one who, from youth to age, had seen with exultant 
pride the flag of his country, as it unfolded, disclosing to view 
the stripes recordant of the original size of the family of 
States, and the constellation which told of that family's 
growth, it could be but deeply mortifying to witness such a 
paltry exhibition of deception and unmanliness in the repre- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 257 

sentatives of a Government around which fond memories still 
lingered, despite the perversions of which it was the subject. 

If this attempt on the part of the Government of the 
United States to deny the existence of war, after having, by 
proclamation of blockade, compelled all nations to take notice 
that war did exist, and to claim that munitions should not be 
sold to a country because there were some disorderly people 
in it, had been all, the attempt would have been ludicrously 
absurd, and the contradiction too bald to require refutation ; 
but this would have been but half of the story. Subsequent- 
ly the United States Government claimed reclamation from 
Great Britain for damage inflicted by vessels which had been 
built in her ports, and which had elsewhere been armed and 
equipped for purposes of war. International war recognizes 
the right of a neutral to sell an unarmed vessel, without ref- 
erence to the use to which the purchaser might subsequently 
apply it. The United States Government had certainly not 
practised under a different rule, but had even gone further 
than this— so much further as to transgress the prohibition 
against armed vessels. 

At the beginning of the war the United States Govern- 
ment sought to contract for the construction of iron-plated 
vessels in the ports of England, which were to be delivered 
fully armed and equipped to her. To this it may be added 
that her armies, down to almost the last month of the war, 
were recruited from nearly all the countries of Europe; that 
a portion of their arms were of foreign manufacture, as well as 
the munitions of war; that a large number of the sailors of 
her fleets came from the seaports of Great Britain and Ger- 
many ; in a word, whatever could be of service to her in the 
conflict was unhesitatingly sought among neutrals, regardless 
of the law of nations. At the same time an effort was made 
on her part to make Great Britain responsible for the damage 
done by our cruisers and for the warlike stores sold to our 
Government. 

Lord John Russell, noting this point, in a despatch dated 
December 19, 1862, says: 

" If it be sought to make Her Majesty's Government re- 
sponsible to that of the United States because arms and mu- 



17 



258 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

nitions of war have left this country on account of the Con- 
federate Government, the Confederate Government, as the 
other belligerent, may very well maintain that it has a just 
cause of complaint against the British Government because 
the United States arsenals have been replenished from Brit- 
ish sources. Nor would it be possible to deny that, in defi- 
ance of the Queen's proclamation, many subjects of Her Maj- 
esty, owing allegiance to her crown, have enlisted in the armies 
of the United States. . . . Her Majesty's Government 
therefore has just ground of complaint against both of the 
belligerent parties, but most especially against the Govern- 
ment of the United States, for having systematically, and in 
disregard of the comity of nations, which it was their duty to 
observe, induced subjects of Her Majesty to violate those or- 
ders which, in conformity with her neutral position, she has 
enjoined all her subjects to obey." 

A candid study of the duty of neutrals under international 
law, with regard to the construction and equipment of cruis- 
ers of either belligerent, and especially of American prece- 
dents and authorities, will demonstrate the utter groundless- 
ness of the claims put forth by the Government of the United 
States, and establish the lawfulness of the acts of the Con- 
federate Government. The complaints made by the Govern- 
ment of the United States against the Government of Great 
Britain for acts involving a breach of neutrality found no sup- 
port in the letter of the law, or in its principles, and were 
conclusively answered by the antecedent acts of the United 
States Government. 

It is a remarkable fact that the Government of the United 
States, in no one instance, from the opening to the close of: 
the war, formally spoke of the Confederate Government or 
States as belligerents. Although on many occasions it acted 
with the Confederate Government as a belligerent, yet no 
official designations were ever given to them or their citizens 
but those of "insurgents" or "insurrectionists." Neverthe- 
less, the United States Government, although refusing bel- 
ligerent rights to the Confederate States, were very ready to 
take advantage of such concessions by other nations whenever 
an opportunity offered. The voluminous correspondence of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 259 

the Secretary of State of the United States Government, rel- 
ative to the Confederate cruisers and their so-called " depre- 
dations," was filled with charges of violations of international 
law, which could be committed only by a belligerent, and 
which, it was alleged, had been permitted in the ports of 
Great Britain. On this foundation was based the subsequent 
claim for damages advanced by the Government of the 
United States against that of Great Britain ; and for the pre- 
tended lack of "due diligence" in watching the actions of the 
Confederate belligerents in her ports, she was mulcted in a 
heavy sum by the Geneva Conference, and paid it to the 
Government of the United States. 

The party against which the Government of the United 
States was conducting hostilities consisted of the people 
within the limits of the Confederate States. Was it against 
them as individuals in an unorganized condition, or as organ- 
ized political communities ? In the former condition they 
might be a mob ; in the latter condition they formed a state. 
By the actions of unorganized mobs may arise insurrections, 
but by the actions of organized people or states arise wars. 

The Government of the United States adopted a fiction 
when it declared that the execution of the laws in certain 
States was impeded by insurrection. The people whom it 
designated insurrectionists were the organized people of the 
States. Every public act of theirs was originated with State 
authority and was conducted under the supervision of the 
State ofificers ; the results were reported to State Govern- 
ment and put in operation by the State executives. Why, 
then, did an intelligent and powerful Government so outrage 
the understanding of mankind as to adopt a fiction on which 
to base the authority and justification of its hostile action. 
The United States Government was the result of a compact 
between the States — a written Constitution. It owed its 
existence simply to a delegation of certain powers by the re- 
spective States, which it was authorized to exercise for their 
common welfare. One of these powers was to " suppress in- 
surrections ; " but no power was delegated to subjugate States 
— the authors of its existence — or to make war on any of the 
States. If, then, without any delegated power or lawful 



26o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

authority for its proceedings, the Government of the United 
States commenced war upon some of the States of the Union, 
how could it be justified before the world ? It became the 
agsrressor — the Attila of the continent. Its action inflicted 
a wound on the principles of constitutional liberty, a crush- 
ing blow to the hopes that men had begun to repose in their 
latest efforts for self-government, -which its friends should 
neither forgive nor forget. To palliate the enormity of such 
an offence, its authors resorted to a vehement denial that 
their hostile action was a war against the States, and persist- 
ently asserted the fiction that these immense armies and fleets 
were merely a police authority to put down insurrection. 
They hoped to conceal from the observation of the American 
people that the contest on the part of the central Govern- 
ment was for empire — for its absolute supremacy over the 
State Governments ; that the Constitution was rolled up and 
laid away among the old archives ; and that the conditions of 
their liberty in the future were to be decided by the sword or 
by " national " control of the ballot-box. 

With like disregard of truth our cruisers were denounced 
as " pirates " by the Federal Government. By the laws of 
nations a pirate is the enemy of mankind, and can be de- 
stroyed by the ships of any nation. The difference between 
the lawful cruiser and the pirate is, that the former has behind 
it a government which is recognized by civilized nations as en- 
titled to the rights of war, and from which the commander of 
the cruiser receives his commission or authority ; but the pirate 
represents no government, and is not recognized by any one. 

The Government of the United States well knew that 
after the issue of the Queen's proclamation, recognizing our 
Government, the application of the word pirate to our cruisers 
was simply an exhibition of vindictive passion. K de facto 
Government, by its commission, legalizes among nations a 
cruiser. That there was such a Government even its own 
courts decided.* The belligerent character of the Confeder- 
ate States was fully acknowledged by the highest judicial 
tribunal of the United States. 

* 2 Black, 635 ; 7 Wheaton, 337. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 26 1 

During the first months of the war all the principal ports 
of the Confederacy were blockaded, and finally every inlet was 
either in the possession of the enemy or had one or more ves- 
sels watching it. The steamers were independent of wind and 
weather, and could hold their positions before a port day and 
night. At the same time the ports of neutrals had been 
closed against the prizes of our cruisers by proclamations and 
Orders in Council. Says Admiral Semmes : " During my whole 
career upon the sea, I had not so much as a single port into 
which I could send a prize." 

No course was left to us but to destroy the prizes, as was 
done in many instances under the Government of the United 
States Confederation. 

In January, 1871, the British Government proposed to 
the Government of the United States that a joint commission 
should be convened to adjust certain differences between the 
two nations relative to the fisheries, the Canadian boundary, 
etc. To the proposition the latter acceded, on condition that 
the so-called Alabama claims should also be considered. To 
this condition Great Britain assented. In the convention the 
American commissioners proposed an arbitration of these 
claims. The British commissioners replied that Her Majes- 
ty's Government could not admit that Great Britain had 
failed to discharge toward the United States the duties im- 
posed on her by the rules of international law, or that she 
was justly liable to make good to the United States the losses 
occasioned by the acts of the cruisers to which the American 
commissioners referred. 

Without following the details it may be summarily stated 
that the Geneva Conference ensued, which decided that 
" England should have fulfilled her duties as a neutral with 
the exercise of a diligence equal to the gravity of the danger," 
and that " the circumstances were of a nature to call for the 
exercise, on the part of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, 
of all possible solicitude for the observance of the rights and 
duties involved in the proclamations issued by Her Majesty 
on May 13, 1861." The Conference also added : " It cannot 
be denied that there were moments when its watchfulness 
seemed to fail, and when feebleness in certain branches of the 



262 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

public service resulted in great detriment to the United 
States." 

The various claims for damage done by fourteen Confeder- 
ate cruisers aggregated $26,408,170. The Conference rejected 
the claims founded on the damage done by the Boston, the 
Sallie, and ihejeffersoti Davis, and then awarded to the United 
States Government $15,500,000 in gold. 

The indirect damages upon the commerce of the United 
States by these cruisers were far beyond the amount of the 
claims presented to the Geneva Conference. The number of 
ships owned by the United States at the beginning of the war, 
which were subsequently transferred to foreign owners by a 
British register, was 715 ; the amount of the tonnage, 480,882 
tons. Such are the laws of the United States that not one of 
them has been allowed to resume an American register. 

In the year i860 nearly seventy per cent of the foreign com- 
merce of the country was carried in American ships. But in 
consequence of the danger of capture by our cruisers to which 
these ships were exposed, the amount of this commerce carried 
by them had dwindled down in 1864 to forty-six percent. It 
continued to decline after the war, and in 1872 it had fallen 
to twenty-eight and one-half per cent. 

Before the war the amount of American tonnage was sec- 
ond only to that of Great Britain, and we were competing with 
her for the first place. At that time the tonnage of the coast- 
ing trade, which had grown from insignificance, was 1,735,863 
tons. Three years later, in 1864, it had declined to about 
867,931 tons. 

The damage to the articles of export is illustrated by the 
decline in breadstuffs exported from the Northern States. In 
the last four months of each of the following years the value 
of this export was as follows : 1861, $42,500,000; 1862, $27,. 
842,000; 1863, $8,909,042; 1864, $1,850,819. Some of this 
decline resulted from good crops in England ; but, in other 
respects, it was a consequence of causes growing out of the 
war. The increase in the rates of marine insurance, in conse- 
quence of the danger of capture by cruisers, was variable ; 
but the claims on this account presented to the Conference, 
and allowed, aggregated $6,146,219. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 263 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT OF STATES. 

On the capture of Nashville, on February 25, 1862, An- 
drew Johnson was made military governor of Tennessee, with 
the rank of brigadier-general, and immediately entered on 
the military duties of his office. The will of the Governor 
was the supreme law. Public officers were required to take 
an oath of allegiance to the United States Government, and 
on refusal were expelled from office. Newspapers were sup- 
pressed and their offices closed. Subsequently the offices 
were sold out under the provisions of the Confiscation Act. 
All persons using " treasonable or seditious " language were 
arrested and required to take the oath of allegiance to the 
Government of the United States, and to give bonds for the 
future, or go into exile. Clergymen, on their refusal to take 
the oath, were confined in the prisons until they could be 
sent away. School-teachers and editors, and finally large 
numbers of private citizens, were arrested and held until they 
took the oath. Conflicts became frequent in the adjacent 
country. Murder and the violent destruction of property 
ensued. 

On October 21, 1862, an order for an election of members 
of the United States Congress in the ninth and tenth State 
districts was issued. Every voter was required to give satis- 
factory evidence of " loyalty " to the Northern Government. 
Two persons were chosen and admitted to seats in that body. 

That portion of the State in the possession of the forces of 
the United States continued without change until the begin- 
ning of 1864. Measures were then commenced for an organiza- 
tion of a State Government in sympathy with the Government 
of the United States. These measures were subsequently 
known as the process for " State reconstruction." The Gov- 



264 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

ernor issued his proclamation for an election of county officers 
on March 5th, to be held wherever it was practicable, in the 
various counties of the State. " It is not expected," says the 
Governor, " that the enemies of the United States will pro- 
pose to vote, nor is it intended that they be permitted to vote 
or hold office," 

The election was a failure. For a time all further efforts 
at reconstruction were suspended. An attempt was made, at 
the end of 1864, to obtain a convention to amend the State 
Constitution, and, without any regular authority, a body 
assembled, which adopted amendments. These were sub- 
mitted to the voters and declared to be ratified by a vote of 
25,000. The vote of the State in i860 was 145,000. Sla- 
very was abolished, and other changes were made ; so-called 
State officers were elected ; and this body of voters was pro- 
claimed as the reconstructed State of Tennessee. 

The next attempt to guarantee " a republican form of 
government " to a State was commenced in Louisiana by the 
military occupation of New Orleans, on May i, 1862. The 
Federal forces were under the command of Major-General 
Benjamin F. Butler ; and Brigadier-General Shepley was ap- 
pointed military governor of the State. Under this rule, in 
Louisiana, aged and peaceful citizens, unresisting captives, and 
non-combatants were confined at hard labor, with chains at- 
tached to their limbs, and held in dungeons and fortresses; 
others, for selling medicine to the sick soldiers of the Con- 
federacy, were subjected to a similar degrading punishment. 
The soldiers of the invading force were incited and encouraged 
by general orders to insult and outrage the wives and mothers 
and sisters of the citizens ; and helpless women were torn 
from their homes and subjected to solitary confinement, some 
in fortresses and prisons — and one, especially, on an island 
of barren sand, under a tropical sun — and were fed with 
loathsome rations and exposed to vile insults. Prisoners of 
war, who surrendered to the naval forces of the United States 
on the agreement that they should be released on parole, were 
seized and kept in close confinement. Repeated pretexts 
were sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the 
captured city, by fines levied and collected under threats of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMEIUCA. 265 

imprisonment at hard labor with ball and chain. The entire 
population was forced to elect between starvation by the con- 
fiscation of all their property or taking an oath against their 
conscience to bear allegiance to the invader. Egress from the 
city was refused to those whose fortitude stood the test, and 
even to lone and aged women and helpless children; and, 
after being ejected from their houses and robbed of their prop- 
erty, they were left to starve in the street or subsist on charity. 
The slaves were driven from their plantations in the neighbor- 
hood of New Orleans until their owners consented to share 
their crops with the commanding general, his brother, and 
other ofificers. When such consent had been extorted the 
slaves were restored to the plantations and compelled to work 
under the bayonets of a guard of United States soldiers. 
Where that partnership was refused, armed expeditions were 
sent to the plantations to rob them of everything that could 
be removed ; and even slaves too aged and infirm for work, in 
spite of their entreaties, were forced from the homes provided 
by their owners, and driven to wander helpless on the high- 
way. By one order (No. 91) the entire property in the part 
of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River was sequestered 
for confiscation, and officers were assigned to the duty, with 
orders to gather up and collect the personal property, and 
turn over to the proper officers, upon their receipts, such of it 
as might be required for the use of the United States Army; 
and to bring the remainder to New Orleans, and cause it to 
be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. The African 
slaves, also, were not only incited to insurrection by every 
license and encouragement, but numbers of them were armed 
for a servile war. In many instances the ofificers were active 
and zealous agents in the commission of these crimes, and no 
instance was known of the refusal of any one of them to par- 
ticipate in the outrages. 

Another example was the cold-blooded execution of Will- 
iam B. Mumford, on June 7th. He was an unresisting and 
non-combatant captive, and no offence was ever alleged to 
have been committed by him subsequent to the date of the 
capture of New Orleans. He was charged with aiding and 
abetting certain persons in hauling down a United States flag 



266 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

hoisted on the mint, which was left there by a boat's crew 
on the morning of April 26th, and five days before the mili- 
tary occupation of the city. He was tried before a military 
commission, sentenced, and afterward hanged. 

On December 15, 1862, General Banks took command of 
the military forces, and General Butler retired. Early in 
August the military Governor had attempted to set on foot 
a judicial system for the city and State. For this purpose he 
appointed judges in two of the District Courts, of which the 
judges were absent, and authorized a third, wlio held a com- 
mission dated anterior to 1861, to resume the sessions. This 
was an establishment of three new courts, with the jurisdiction 
and powers pertaining to the courts that previously bore their 
names, by a military officer representing the Executive of the 
United States. These were the only courts within the terri- 
tory of the State held by the United States which claimed 
to have civil jurisdiction ; but this jurisdiction was limited to 
citizens of the parish of Orleans as against defendants residing 
in the State. As to other residents of the State, outside of 
the parish of Orleans, there was no court in which they could 
be sued. In this condition several parishes were held by the 
United States forces. 

It was therefore necessary to take another step to enable 
the military power to administer civil affairs. It involved 
a complete subversion of the fundamental principles of social 
organization. According to this advanced step — with abso- 
lute disregard of the fundamental principle that the military 
shall be subject to the civil authority — the military absorbs 
by force the civil functions, fixes at will its rules and modes 
of action, and determines the limit of its power. 

This attempt to administer civil affairs on the basis of mili- 
tary authority involved the subversion of fundamental princi- 
ples. The military power may remove obstacles to the exercise 
of the civil authority ; but when these are removed it cannot 
enter the forum and sit in judgment on civil affairs any more 
than the hawk can become a dove by assuming her plumage. 

However, the next step was taken, and an order from the 
President of the United States was published, creating a " Pro- 
visional Court," constituting it a court of record, " with author 



a 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 267 

ity to hear, try, and determine all causes, civil and criminal, 
including causes in law, equity, revenue, and admiralty, and 
particularly with all such powers and jurisdiction as belong to 
the District and Circuit Courts of the United States." 

A New York lawyer was appointed judge, with power to ap- 
point the necessary subordinate officers — " these appointments 
to continue during the pleasure of the President, not extend- 
ing beyond . . . the restoration of the civil authority in 
that city [New Orleans] and the State of Louisiana." 

The Constitution of the United States says : " The judicial 
power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme 
Court, and in such Supreme Courts as the Congress may from 
time to time ordain and establish." This Provisional Court 
was neither ordained nor established by Congress; it had not, 
therefore, vested in it any of the judicial power of the United 
States. Neither does the Constitution give to Congress any 
power by which it can constitute an independent State court 
within the limits of any State in the Union, as Louisiana was 
said to be. 

This court, therefore, was a mere instrument of martial 
law, constituted by the commander-in-chief of the United 
States forces, without any of the reasons by which such courts 
are justified ; for to warrant the establishment of this court 
no authority was to be found either in the Constitution of the 
United States or outside of it. 

When called upon to state any just ground for such a 
measure, the invader has usually replied that he had, ex necessi- 
tate rei, the right to establish such a tribunal. Thus said the 
commander-in-chief of the United States, and Congress ac- 
quiesced — indeed leading the way ; for it had urged the same 
plea to justify the passage of the Confiscation Act. The 
judiciary has observed the silence of acquiescence. Thus the 
doctrine of necessity — the rule that in the administration of 
affairs, both military and civil, the necessity of the case may 
and does afford ample authority and power to subvert or to 
suspend the provisions of the Constitution, and to exercise 
powers and do acts unwarranted by the grants of that instru- 
ment — has apparently become incorporated as an unwritten 
clause in the Constitution of the United States. 



268 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

PROGRESS OF CENTRALIZATION. 

On December 3d, under an order of the military Governor, 
Shepley, a so-called election was held for members of Con- 
gress in the First and Second State Districts, each composed 
of about half the city of New Orleans and portions of the sur- 
rounding parishes. Benjamin F. Flanders received the major- 
ity of all votes cast in the First District, and Michael Hahn the 
majority in the Second District. Those persons presented them- 
selves at Washington, and their claims to seats in the House 
of Representatives were favored by the Committee on Elec- 
tions. As the proclamation for the elections was not issued 
by the civil Governor, as the law explicitly required, the ad- 
mission of these claimants, elected in defiance of the legal 
requirement, would be a recognition by Congress of the valid- 
ity of a military order over a State civil law. But although 
all the departments of the Federal Government had acted on 
the theory that the Confederate States were in a state of 
insurrection, and that the Union was unbroken, so that they 
could come back to the Union with all their laws unimpaired; 
and although Congress, under this theory, was as much bound 
to uphold the laws of Louisiana as the laws of New York — 
yet the Louisiana claimants were admitted to seats in the 
House of Representatives. 

Nor was this all. The work of reconstructing the State 
of Louisiana out of the small portion of her population and 
territory subjugated by the military forces of the United States 
still went on. The next project was to hold a State Conven- 
tion to frame a new Constitution ; but its advocates were so few 
that nothing was done during the year 1863. The object of 
the military power was to secure such civil authority as to en- 
force the abolition of slavery ; and, until the way was clear to 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 269 

that result, every method of organization was held in abey- 
ance. 

Meanwhile, on December 8, 1863, the President of the 
United States issued a proclamation which contained his plan 
of making a Union State out of a fragment of a Confederate 
State, and also grant only an amnesty to the general mass of 
the people on taking an oath of allegiance. His plan, briefly 
stated, was that, whenever any number of persons in any one 
of the Confederate States, not less than one-tenth in number 
of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of 
i860, each having taken the prescribed oath of allegiance, and 
having been a qualified voter by the election laws of the State 
existing immediately before the act of secession, should re- 
establish a State government, said government should be rec- 
ognized as the true government of the State. The oath re- 
quired was to support the Constitution, the Union, and "all 
acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with 
reference to slaves," and also " all proclamations of the Presi- 
dent " issued during the same period and referring to slaves, 
until or unless modified and declared void by decision of the 
Supreme Court. 

This Presidential plan to restore States to the Union did 
not contain a single feature to secure a republican form of 
government, nor a single provision authorized by the Consti- 
tution of the United States. With his usurped war-power 
to sustain him in the work of destruction, he found it easy to 
destroy ; but he was powerless to create or restore. 

Under the proclamation of the President, Major-General 
Banks issued at New Orleans, on January ii, 1864, a pro- 
clamation for an election of State officers and for members of 
a State Constitutional Convention. The State officers, when 
elected, were to constitute, according to the proclamation, 
" the civil government of the State under the Constitution and 
laws of Louisiana, except so much of the said Constitution 
and laws as recognize, regulate, or relate to slavery, which, 
being inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs, 
and plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing 
within its limits, must be suspended." The number of votes 
given for State officers was 10,270. The population of the 



270 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

State in i860 was 708,902. The so-called Governor-elect was 
inaugurated on March 4th, and on March nth he was in- 
vested with the powers hitherto exercised by the military Gov- 
ernor for the President of the United States. On the same 
day Major-General Banks issued an order relative to the elec- 
tion of delegates to a so-called State Convention. The most 
important provisions of it defined the qualifications of voters. 
The delegates were elected entirely within the army lines of 
the forces of the United States. The so-called Convention 
assembled and adopted a so-called Constitution, declaring 
" instantaneous, universal, uncompensated, unconditional eman- 
cipation of slaves." The meagre vote on the Constitution 
was, for its adoption, 6,836; for its rejection, 1,566. The 
vote of New Orleans was, yeas, 4,664; nays, 789. This state 
of affairs continued after the close of the war. Violent dis- 
putes arose as to the validity of the so-called Constitution. 
The so-called Legislature elected under it adopted Article 
XIII. as an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, prohibiting the existence of slavery in the United 
States. 

It will be seen from these facts that the State of Louisiana 
was not a republican State, instituted by the consent of the 
governed ; that its Legislature was an unconstitutional body 
without any "just powers ;" and that the vote which it gave 
for the amendment of the Constitution of the United States 
was no vote at all ; for it was given by a body that had no 
authority to give it, because it had no "just powers" what- 
ever. Yet this vote was counted among those necessary to 
secure the passage of the constitutional amendment. Was 
this an attempt to enforce a fiction or to establish the truth ? 
Such are the deeds which go to make up the record of crime 
against the liberties of mankind. 

The proceedings in Arkansas to " institute " a republican 
State government were inaugurated by an order from the 
President of the United States to Major-General Steele, com- 
manding the Federal forces in Arkansas. At this time the 
regular government of the State, established by the consent 
of the people, was in full operation outside the lines of the 
United States army. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 2/1 

Meanwhile some persons in the northern part of Arkansas, 
acting under the proclamation of December 8, 1863, got to- 
gether a so-called State Convention, containing the slavery- 
prohibition, etc. This was ordered to be submitted to the 
popular vote, and at the same time State officers were to be 
elected. President Lincoln acceded to these proceedings 
after they had been placed under the direction of General 
Steele, the military commander. The election was held, the 
Constitution received 12,000 votes, and the State officers were 
declared to be elected. Then Arkansas came forth as a so- 
called republican State, " instituted " by military authority, 
and of course received the benefit of the constitutional pro- 
vision which declares that " the United States shall guarantee 
to every State in the Union a republican form of government." 
It should be added that Arkansas, thus " instituted " a State, 
was regarded by the Government of the United State as 
competent to give as valid a vote as New York, Massachusetts, 
or any other Northern State for the ratification of Article 
XIII., as an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States, prohibiting the existence of slavery in the United 
States. The vote was thus given ; it was counted ; and it 
served to make up the exact number deemed by the managers 
to be necessary. Thus were fraud and falsehood triumphant 
over popular rights and fundamental law. 

The perversion of republican principles was greater in 
Virginia than in any other State, through the co-operation of 
the Government of the United States. In the winter of 1860- 
61 a special session of the Legislature of the State, convened 
at Richmond, passed an act directing the people to elect 
delegates to a State Convention, to be held on February 14, 
1861. The Convention assembled and was occupied with the 
subject of Federal relations and the adjustment of difficulties 
until the call for troops by President Lincoln was made, when 
an ordinance of secession was passed. The contiguity of the 
northwestern counties of the State to Ohio and Pennsylvania 
led to the manifestation of much opposition to the with- 
drawal of the State from the Union, and the determination 
to reorganize that portion as a separate State. This resulted 
in the assemblins: of a so-called Convention of Delegates at 



272 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Wheeling on June i ith. One of its first acts was to provide 
for a reorganization of the State government of Virginia by 
declaring its offices vacant and the appointment of new officers 
throughout. The new organization assumed to be the true 
representative of the State of Virginia; and, after varying 
fortunes, was recognized as such by President Lincoln, The 
next act of the Convention was " to provide for the formation 
of a new State out of a portion of the territory of this State." 
Under this act delegates were elected to a so-called Constitu- 
tional Convention, Avhich framed a so-called Constitution for 
the new State of West Virginia, which was submitted to a vote 
of the people in April, 1862, and carried by a large majority 
of that section. INIeanwhile the Governor of the reorganized 
government of Virginia issued his proclamation for an elec- 
tion of members, and the assembly of an extra session of the 
so-called Legislature. The body assembled on May 6, 1862, 
and assumed to be the Legislature of the State of Virginia. 
This body immediately passed an act giving its consent to 
the formation of a new State out of the territory of Virginia. 
The formal act of consent and the draft of the new Constitu- 
tion of West Virginia were ordered by this so-called Legisla- 
ture to be sent to the Congress of the United States, then 
in session, with the request that " the said new State be ad- 
mitted into the Union." On December 31, 1862, the Presi- 
dent approved an act for that purpose. 

When the question of the admission of West Virginia was 
before the House of Representatives of the United States 
Congress, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, declared, 
with exemplary frankness, that he would not stultify himself 
by claiming the act to be constitutional. He said : " We 
know that it is not constitutional ; but it is necessary." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 273 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA. 

After the retreat of McClellan to Westover his army 
remained inactive about a month. His front was closely 
watched by a brigade of cavalry, and preparations were made 
to resist a renewal of his attempt upon Richmond from his 
new base. The main body of our army awaited the develop- 
ment of his intentions, and no important event took place. 

Meantime another army of the enemy, under General Pope, 
advanced southward from Washington and crossed the Rap- 
pahannock, as if to seize Gordonsville and move thence upon 
Richmond. Contemporaneously the enemy appeared in front 
at Fredericksburg and threatened the railroad from Gordons- 
ville to Richmond, apparently for the purpose of co-operating 
with the movements of General Pope. To meet the advance 
of Pope, and restrain as far as possible the atrocities which 
he threatened to perpetrate upon our defenceless citizens, 
General Jackson, with his own and Ewell's division, was or- 
dered to proceed, on July 13th, toward Gordonsville. 

The nature of the outrages threatened by General Pope 
may be inferred from his General Orders No. 5, No. 6, and 
No. 7. 

No. 5 ordered that, as far as practicable, the troops of his 
command should subsist upon the country in which their op- 
erations were carried on ; that, for supplies thus taken, vouchers 
were to be given to the owners, payable at the close of the 
war *' upon sufficient testimony being furnished that such 
owners had been loyal citizens of the United States since the 
date of the voucher." 

No. 6 ordered that " in any operation of the cavalry forces 
no supply- or baggage-trains of any description should be 
used, and that all villages and neighborhoods through which 
18 



274 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

they should pass should be laid under contribution for the 
subsistence of men and horses." 

No. 7 notified the people of the valley of the Shenandoah 
and other regions in which the army might operate that they 
would be held responsible for any injury done the track, line, 
or railroads ; that they would be held responsible for any at- 
tacks on the trains or straggling soldiers by bands of guerillas 
in their neighborhood ; that if a soldier or legitimate follower 
of the army should be fired upon from any house, the house 
would be razed to the ground and the Inhabitants taken 
prisoners ; that " if such an outrage occur at any place distant 
from settlements, the people within five miles around shall be 
held accountable and made to pay an indemnity sufficient for 
the case ; and any person detected in such outrages, either 
during the act or at any time afterward, shall be shot, without 
waiting civil process." 

These orders announcing a policy of pillage were followed 
ten days later by General Order No. 1 1, inaugurating a policy 
of expatriation. 

Commanders were ordered to proceed immediately to " ar- 
rest all disloyal male citizens within their lines or within 
their reach in the rear of their respective stations." " Such as 
are willing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, 
and will furnish sufficient security for its observance, shall be 
permitted to remain at their homes. . . . Those who re- 
fuse shall be conducted south beyond the extreme pickets of 
the army, and be notified that, if found again within our lines, 
or at any point in the rear, they will be considered spies, and 
subjected to the extreme rigor of the military law." 

Had the vigor of this campaign been equal to the bom- 
bastic manifesto of this disgrace to the profession of arms, the 
injuries inflicted would have been more permanent ; the con- 
duct could hardly have been more brutal. On receipt of 
General Pope's last order, I instructed General Lee to com- 
municate to the Federal commander in his front that, until 
said order was revoked, the Confederate Government would 
not consider any officers hereafter captured from General 
Pope's army as prisoners of war ; and that while, for the time 
being, we should renounce our right of retaliation on the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 275 

innocent, and should continue to treat the private enlisted 
soldiers of General Pope's army as prisoners of war, yet, if 
these savage practices were continued, we should be reluc- 
tantly forced to the last resort of accepting the war on the 
terms chosen by the foe, until the outraged voice of a common 
humanity should force a respect for the recognized rules of 
war. 

When General Jackson arrived near Gordonsville, on July 
19, 1862, he was reinforced by General A. P. Hill. Receiving 
information that only a part of General Pope's army was at 
Culpeper Court-House, General Jackson, hoping to defeat it 
before reinforcements should arrive, moved forward the divi- 
sions of Ewell, Hill, and Jackson, on August 7th, from their 
intrenchments near Gordonsville. On August 9th Jackson 
arrived within eight miles of Culpeper Court-House, and 
found the foe on his front near Cedar Run. His cavalry in 
large force occupied a ridge to the right of the road. A bat- 
tery opened on it and soon forced it to retire. Our fire was 
responded to by some guns beyond the ridge from which the 
advance had just been driven. Soon afterward the cavalry 
returned to the position where it was first seen, and General 
Early was ordered forward. General Early, forming his 
brigade in line of battle, moved into the open field and drove 
the opposing cavalry before him to the crest of a hill which 
overlooked the ground between his troops and the opposite 
hill, along which the enemy's batteries were posted, which 
opened upon him as soon as he reached the eminence. Early 
retired his troops under the protection of the hill, and a small 
battery of ours in advance of his right opened. Meanwhile 
General Winder, with Jackson's brigade, was placed on the 
left of the road ; Campbell's brigade. Colonel Garnett com- 
manding, being on the left ; Taliaferro's, parallel to the road, 
supporting the batteries ; and Winder's own brigade in re- 
serve. 

The battle opened with a fierce fire of artillery, which 
lasted about two hours. 

The enemy's infantry advanced about 5 P.M., and at- 
tacked Early in front, while another body, concealed, moved 
upon his right. The contest soon became animated. In the 



276 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

meantime the main body of the opposing army gained the 
left of Jackson's division, General Taliaferro commanding, and 
poured a destructive fire into its flank and rear. Campbell's 
brigade fell back in confusion, exposing the flank of Taliafer- 
ro's, which gave way, as also did the left of Early's. The rest 
of his brigade held its ground firmly. 

Winder's brigade, with Branch's, of A. P. Hill's division, 
on its right, advanced promptly to the support of Jackson's 
division, and after a sanguinary struggle the assailants were 
repulsed with loss. Pender's and Archer's brigades, of Hill's 
division, came up on the left of Winder's, and by a general 
charge the foe was driven back in confusion, leaving the 
ground covered with his dead and wounded. General Ewell, 
with his two brigades, on the extreme right, had been pre- 
vented from advancing by the fire of our own artillery, which 
swept his approach to the enemy's left. The obstacle now 
being removed, he pressed forward under a hot fire, and came 
gallantly into action. Repulsed and vigorously followed on 
our left and centre, and now hotly pressed on our right, the 
whole line of the enemy gave way, and was soon in full re- 
treat. Night had now set in, but General Jackson, desiring 
to enter Culpeper Court-House before morning, determined 
to pursue. 

Hill's division led the advance, but, owing to the dark- 
ness, was compelled to move with caution. 

The enemy was found about a mile and a half in the 
rear of the field of battle, and information was received that 
reinforcements had arrived. Jackson therefore halted for the 
night. Next day he became satisfied that the enemy's force 
had been so largely increased as to render imprudent a further 
advance. Sending his wounded to the rear, he proceeded to 
bury the dead, and collect the arms from the battle-field. On 
the nth the enemy asked and got permission to bury those 
of his dead not already interred. Jackson remained in posi- 
tion during the day, and at night returned to the vicinity of 
Gordonsville. 

In this engagement — known as the battle of Cedar Run — 
400 prisoners were captured ; and 5,300 stand of small-arms, 
I piece of artillery, several caissons, and 3 colors fell into 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 277 

our hands. Our killed were 229; wounded, 1,047; total loss, 
1,276. The loss on the other side exceeded 1,500. 

This victory effectually checked the invader for the time ; 
but it soon became apparent that his army was receiving a 
large increase. Burnside's corps had moved up the Rappa- 
hannock, a few days after the battle, to unite with Pope, and 
for the same purpose a part of McClellan's army had left 
Westover. 

It seemed, therefore, that the most effectual way to relieve 
Richmond from any danger of an attack would be to reinforce 
Jackson and advance on Pope. 

Accordingly, on August 13th, Longstreet, Anderson, and 
Stuart proceeded to Gordonsville. On the i6th the troops 
began to move from the vicinity of Gordonsville toward the 
Rapidan, on the north side of v/hich the army of invasion 
lay in great force. It was determined, with the cavalry, to 
destroy the railroad bridge over the Rappahannock in rear of 
the enemy, while Jackson and Longstreet crossed the Rapidan 
and attacked his left flank. But the enemy, becoming ap- 
prised of our design, hastily retreated beyond the Rappahan- 
nock. On the 2 1st our forces moved toward that river, and 
some sharp skirmishing ensued with our cavalry that had 
crossed at Beverly's Ford. As it had been determined not to 
attempt the passage of the river at that point with the army, 
the cavalry withdrew to the south side. Soon the enemy 
appeared in great numbers on the opposite bank, and an 
active fire was kept up between his artillery and Taliaferro's 
batteries. 

But as our positions on the south bank of the Rappahan- 
nock were commanded by those on the north bank, which 
served to guard all the fords. General Lee determined to seek 
a more favorable place to cross higher up the river, and thus 
gain his adversary's right. Longstreet was directed to leave 
Kelly's Ford on the 21st, and take position in the vicinity of 
Beverly's Ford and the railroad bridge, then held by Jackson, 
in order to mask the movement of Jackson, who was in- 
structed to ascend the river. On the 22d Jackson proceeded 
up the Rappahannock, leaving Trimble's brigade to guard 
his train. In the afternoon Longstreet sent Hood, with two 



2/8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

brigades, to relieve Trimble. Hood had just reached the po- 
sition, when he and Trimble were attacked by a considerable 
force. After a short engagement the enemy was driven pre- 
cipitately over the river with heavy loss. Jackson was pre- 
vented from crossing by a heavy rain, which caused the river 
to rise so rapidly as to be impassable for infantry and artillery, 
and he withdrew the troops that had reached the opposite 
side. General Stuart crossed the Rappahannock on the 
morning of the 22d, about six miles above the Springs, with 
parts of two brigades, but was prevented from destroying the 
railroad bridge at Catlet's Station by the same storm that 
arrested Jackson's movements. He captured more than 300 
prisoners. Apprehensive of the effects of the rain, he then 
recrossed the Rappahannock. The rise of the river, rendering 
the lower fords impassable, enabled the enemy to concentrate 
his main body opposite Jackson. Longstreet was ordered 
to his support by General Lee. Although retarded by the 
swollen Rappahannock and its tributaries, he reached Jeffer- 
sonton in the afternoon of the 24th. Jackson's command lay 
between that place and the Spring's Ford, and a warm can- 
nonade was progressing between the batteries of General 
A. P. Hill's division and those in his front. The enemy was 
massed between Warrenton and the Springs, and guarded the 
fords of the Rappahannock as far above as Waterloo. 

McClellan's army had left Westover, and part of it had 
marched to join Pope. It was reported that the rest would 
soon follow. For the same purpose the greater part of Gen- 
eral Cox's army had been withdrawn from the Kanawha 
Valley. 

Jackson crossed the Rappahannock on the 25th, and 
reached Bristoe Station on the evening of the 26th. At 
Gainesville he was joined by Stuart, with the brigades of 
Robertson and Fitzhugh Lee, who continued with him during 
his operations, and guarded both his flanks. 

Jackson was now between the army of Pope and Wash- 
ington City, without having met any considerable force. 
General Trimble volunteered to push forward in the night, 
with two Carolina regiments, to capture the enemy's depot 
at Manassas Junction, seven miles from Jackson's encamp- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



279 



ment. The offer was accepted. About midnight the place 
was captured with little difficulty. Eight pieces of artillery, 
with their horses, ammunition, and equipments were captured ; 
more than 300 prisoners, 175 horses, besides those belonging 
to the artillery, 200 new tents, and immense quantities of 
commissary and quartermaster's stores fell into our hands. 

Ewell's division was left at Bristoe Station, and the rest 
of the command arrived at the Junction early on the 27th. 
Soon ? considerable force of the enemy, under General Tay- 
lor, of New Jersey, pushed forward boldly to recover the 
stores. After a sharp engagement he was routed and driven 
back, leaving his killed and wounded on the field. The 
troops remained at Manassas Junction during the day, and 
supplied themselves with everything they required. In the 
afternoon two brigades advanced against General Ewell, at 
Bristoe, from the direction of Warrenton Junction, but were 
broken and repulsed. Their place was soon supplied with 
fresh troops, and it was apparent that the commander had 
turned upon General Jackson with his whole force. General 
Ewell, perceiving the strength of the column, withdrew and 
rejoined General Jackson. The enemy halted at Bristoe. 
General Jackson, having a much inferior force to General 
Pope's, retired from Manassas Junction and took a position 
west of the turnpike road from Warrenton to Alexandria, 
where he could more readily unite with the approaching 
column of Longstreet. Having supplied the wants of his 
troops, he was compelled, through lack of transportation, to 
destroy the rest of the captured property. Many thousand 
pounds of bacon, a thousand barrels of corned beef, two 
thousand barrels of salt pork, and two thousand barrels of 
flour, besides other property of great value, were burned. 

During the night of the 27th of August Taliaferro's 
division halted near the battle-field of July 21, 1S61, where it 
was joined on the 28th by the divisions of Hill and Ewell. 
During the afternoon the enemy, approaching from the di- 
rection of Warrenton toward Alexandria, exposed his left 
flank, and General Jackson determined to attack him. A 
fierce and sanguinary conflict ensued, which continued until 
about 9 P.M., when he slowly fell back and left us in possession 



280 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

of the field. The loss on both sides was heavy. On the next 
morning the enemy had taken a position to interpose his army 
between Jackson and Alexandria, and about lo A.M. opened 
with artillery upon the right of Jackson's line. The troops 
of the latter were disposed in rear of Groveton, Jackson's 
division, under Brigadier-General Starke, being on the right ; 
Ewell's, under General Lawton, in the centre; and A. P. Hill's 
on the left. The attacking columns were evidently concen- 
trating on Jackson with the design of overwhelming him 
before the arrival of Longstreet. This latter officer left 
his position opposite Warrenton Springs on the 26th, 
and marched to join Jackson. On the 28th, arriving at 
Thoroughfare Gap, he found the enemy prepared to dispute 
his progress. Holding the eastern extremity of the pass with 
a large force, the enemy directed a heavy fire of artillery upon 
the road leading to it and upon the sides of the mountain. 
An attempt was made to turn his right, but before our troops 
reached their destination he advanced to the attack, and 
being vigorously repulsed, withdrew to his position at the 
eastern end of the Gap, keeping up an active fire of artillery 
until dark. He then retreated. On the morning of the 29th 
Lono-street's command resumed its march, the sound of cannon 
at Manassas announcing that Jackson was already engaged. 
The head of the column came upon the field in rear of the 
enemy's left, which had already opened with artillery upon 
Jackson's right. Longstreet immediately placed some of his 
batteries in position, but, before he could complete his dis- 
positions to attack the force before him, it withdrew to an- 
other part of the field. He then took position on the right 
of Jackson. The cavalry guarded our right and left flanks, 
that on the right being under General Stuart in person. 
After the arrival of Longstreet the enemy changed his posi- 
tion and began to concentrate opposite Jackson's left, open- 
ing a brisk artillery fire, which was responded to by some of 
A. P. Hill's batteries. 

Soon afterward General Stuart reported the approach of a 
large force from the direction of Bristoe Station, threatening 
Longstreet's right. But no serious attack was made, and 
after firing a few shots that force withdrew. Meanwhile a 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 28 1 

large column advanced to assail the left of Jackson's position, 
occupied by the division of A. P. Hill. The attack was 
received by his troops with steadiness, and the battle raged 
with great fury. The enemy was repeatedly repulsed, but 
again pressed on the attack with fresh troops. Once he suc- 
ceeded in penetrating an interval between General Gregg's 
brigade on the extreme left and that of General Thomas, but 
was quickly driven back with great slaughter by the Four- 
teenth South Carolina Regiment and the Forty-ninth Georgia. 
The contest was close and obstinate ; the combatants some- 
times delivered their fire at a few paces. Gregg had success- 
fully and most gallantly resisted the attack until the ammuni- 
tion of his brigade was exhausted and all his field-officers but 
two were killed or wounded. The reinforcement (Hay's bri- 
gade) was of like high-tempered steel, and together in hand- 
to-hand fight they held their post until they were relieved, after 
several hours of severe fighting, by Early's brigade and the 
Eighth Louisiana Regiment. General Early drove the enemy 
back with heavy loss, and pursued about two hundred yards 
beyond the line of battle, when he was recalled to the position 
on the railroad. While the battle was raging on Jackson's 
left. Hood and Evans were ordered by Longstreet to advance, 
but before the order could be obeyed Hood was himself 
attacked, and his command became at once warmly engaged. 
The enemy was repulsed by Hood after a severe contest, and 
fell back, closely followed by our troops. 

The battle continued until 9 P.M., the foe retreating until 
he reached a strong position, which he held with a large force. 
Our troops remained in their advanced position until early 
next morning, when they were withdrawn to their first line. 
One piece of artillery, several stands of colors, and a number 
of prisoners were captured. Our loss was severe. 

On the morning of the 30th the enemy again advanced, 
and skirmishing began along the line. The troops of Jackson 
and Longstreet maintained their position of the previous day. 
At noon the firing of the batteries ceased, and all was quiet 
for some hours. About 3 P.M. the enemy, having massed his 
troops in front of Jackson, advanced in strong force. His 
front line pushed forward until it was engaged at close 



282 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

quarters by Jackson's troops, when its progress was checked, 
and a fierce and bloody struggle ensued. A second and third 
line of great strength moved up to support the first, but in 
doing so came within easy range of a position a little in 
advance of Longstreet's left. He immediately ordered up 
two batteries, and, two others being thrown forward about the 
same time by Colonel S. D. Lee, the supporting lines were 
broken, and fell back in confusion under their well-directed 
and destructive fire. Their repeated efforts to rally were un- 
availing, and Jackson's troops, being thus relieved from the 
pressure of overwhelming numbers, began to press steadily 
forward, driving everything before them. The enemy re- 
treated in confusion, suffering severely from our artillery, 
which advanced as he retired. Longstreet, anticipating the 
order for a general advance, now threw his whole command 
against the centre and left. The whole line swept steadily 
on, driving the opponents with great carnage from each suc- 
cessive position, until lo P.M., when darkness put an end to 
the battle and the pursuit. 

The obscurity of the night and the uncertainty of the fords 
of Bull Run rendered it necessary to suspend operations until 
morning, when the cavalry, being pushed forward, discovered 
that the retreat had continued to the strong position of Centre- 
ville, about four miles beyond Bull Run. The prevalence of a 
heavy rain, which began during the night, threatened to render 
Bull Run impassable, and to impede our movements. Long- 
street remained on the battle-field to engage attention and to 
protect parties for the burial of the dead and the removal of 
the wounded, while Jackson proceeded by Sudley's Ford to the 
Little River turnpike to turn the enemy's right and intercept 
his retreat to Washington. Jackson's progress was retarded 
by the inclemency of the weather and the fatigue of his troops. 
He reached the turnpike in the evening, and the next day 
(September ist) advanced by that road toward Fairfax Court- 
House. The enemy in the meantime was falling back rapidly 
toward Washington, and had thrown a strong force to German- 
town, on the Little River turnpike, to cover his line of retreat 
from Centreville. The advance of Jackson encountered him 
at Ox Hill, near Germantown, about 5 p.m. Line of battle 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 283 

was at once formed, and two brigades were thrown forward to 
attack and ascertain the strength of the position. A cold and 
drenching rain-storm drove in the faces of our troops as they 
advanced and gallantly engaged. They were subsequently 
supported, and the conflict was obstinately maintained until 
dark, when the enemy retreated, having lost two general offi- 
cers, one of whom — Major-General Kearney — was left dead 
on the field. Longstreet's command arrived after the action 
was over, and the next morning it was found that the retreat 
had been so rapid that the attempt to intercept was abandoned. 
The proximity of the fortifications around Alexandria and 
Washington was enough to prevent further pursuit. Our 
army rested during the 2d near Chantilly, the retreating foe 
being followed only by our cavalry, which continued to harass 
him until he reached the shelter of his intrenchments. 

In the series of engagements on the plains of Manassas 
more than 7,000 prisoners were taken, in addition to about 
2,000 wounded left in our hands. Thirty pieces of artillery, 
upward of 20,000 stand of small-arms, numerous colors, and 
a large amount of stores, besides those taken by General Jack- 
son at Manassas Junction, were captured. 

Major-General Pope in his report says : 

" The whole force that I had at Centreville, as reported to 
me by the corps commanders, on the morning of the ist of 
September, was as follows: McDowell's corps, 10,000 men; 
Sigel's corps, about 7,000 ; Heintzelman's corps, about 6,000 ; 
Reno's, 6,000; Banks's, 5,000; Sumner's, 11,000; Porter's, 
10,000 ; Franklin's, 8,000 — in all, 63,000 men. . . . The 
small fraction of 20,500 men was all of the 91,000 veteran 
troops from Harrison's Landing which ever drew trigger under 
my command." 

Our losses in the engagement at Manassas Plains were con- 
siderable. The number killed was 1,090; wounded, 6,154 — 
total, 7,244. The loss of the enemy in killed, wounded, and 
missing was estimated between 15,000 and 20,000. 



284 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

WAR TRANSFERRED TO THE FRONTIER. 

The enemy having retired to the protection of the fortifi- 
cations around Washington and Alexandria, Lee's army, on 
September 3d, marched toward Leesburg. The armies of 
McClellan and Pope had now been brought back to the point 
from which they had set out on the campaign of the spring 
and summer. The objects of those campaigns had been 
frustrated, and the futile designs against the coast of North 
Carolina and in Western Virginia thwarted by the withdrawal 
of the main body of the forces from those regions. 

From Northeastern Virginia the enemy had withdrawn 
his forces to the intrenchments of Washington. The hostile 
troops that had held Winchester had retired to Harpers 
Ferry. The war had been transferred to the frontier. The 
supplies of rich and fertile districts were thus made accessible 
to our army. Not to permit the season of active operations 
to pass without endeavoring to impose a further check on the 
enemy, the best course appeared to be the transfer of our 
army to Maryland. Although not properly equipped for 
invasion, poorly provided with clothing and shoes for the 
soldiers, and greatly deficient in transportation, we yet believed 
that we were strong enough to detain the opposing army 
on the northern frontier until the approach of winter should 
render its advance into Virginia difficult, if not impossible. 
The condition of Maryland encouraged the belief, also, that 
the presence of our army, although numerically inferior to 
the army of the North, would compel the Washington Gov- 
ernment to retain all its available forces to provide against 
contingencies which its conduct toward the people of Mary- 
land gave reason to apprehend. It was hoped also, that mil- 
itary success might give us the power to aid the people of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 28$ 

that State in any effort they might make to recover their 
liberty. 

Influenced by these considerations the army was put in 
motion. It was decided to cross the Potomac east of the 
Blue Ridge, in order by threatening Washington and Balti- 
more to force the enemy to withdraw from the south bank, 
where his presence endangered our communications and the 
safety of our men engaged in the removal of our wounded 
and the captured property from the late battle-field. This 
result accomplished, it was proposed to move the army 
into Western Maryland, and by threatening Pennsylvania 
induce the enemy to withdraw from our territory for the 
protection of his own. 

General Hill's division crossed the Potomac, September 4 
and 7, near Leesburg, and encamped near Frederick, It had 
been supposed that this advance would lead to the evacuation 
of Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, thus opening the line of 
communication through the Shenandoah Valley. This not 
having occurred, it became necessary to dislodge the garrisons 
from those positions before concentrating the army west of 
the mountains. For this purpose Jackson, after a rapid 
march, crossed the Potomac, sent Hill's division to Martins- 
burg, and disposed of the rest of his command so as to cut off 
retreat to the westward. The enemy evacuated Martinsburg 
and retired to Harper's Ferry. Meanwhile General McLaws 
was ordered to seize Maryland Heights, north of the Poto- 
mac, opposite Harper's Ferry. He found the heights in 
possession of the enemy, with infantry and artillery, protected 
by intrenchments. On the 13th he assailed the works, and 
carried them ; the enemy retreated to Harper's Ferry, and on 
the next day the investment was complete. 

Simultaneously with the beginning of the march of these 
troops upon Harper's Ferry the rest of Longstreet's command 
and the division of D. H. Hill crossed the South Mountain 
and moved toward Boonsboro. Longstreet continued his 
march to Hagerstown, and Hill halted near Boonsboro to 
support the cavalry, and prevent the force invested at Har- 
per's Ferry from escaping through Pleasant Valley. The 
advance of the Federal army had been so slow as to justify 



286 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the belief that we should reduce Harper's Ferry and concen- 
trate our forces before we should be called upon to meet the 
foe. In that event it was intended to oppose his passage 
through South Mountain. But a copy of Lee's order of 
battle, found after the evacuation of Frederick City, having 
fallen into McClellan's hands, he pushed forward his forces 
rapidly, and was reported approaching South Mountain on the 
afternoon of the 13th. General Stuart's cavalry impeded his 
progress, and gained us time for preparations to oppose his 
advance. General Hill guarded the Boonsboro Gap, and 
Longstreet was ordered to support him in order to pre- 
vent the passage of a force to release the garrison at 
Harper's Ferry. Early on the 14th a large body of the enemy 
attempted to force its way to the rear of Hill's position. 
Hill's small command, with Garland's brigade, repelled the 
repeated assaults, and held the enemy in check for five hours. 
Longstreet hurried to the assistance of Hill, and reached 
the scene of action between 3 and 4 p.m. The battle raged 
fiercely until night. On the south the enemy was driven 
back some distance, and his attack in the centre repulsed with 
loss. Darkness put an end to the contest. 

Although the attempt of the enemy to force the pass had 
failed, it was evident that Lee could not hazard a renewal of 
the engagement without reinforcements, for McClellan, by his 
great superiority of numbers, could easily turn either flank. 
The news was received also that another large body of his 
troops had forced its way through Crampton Gap, only five 
miles in rear of McLaws. It was determined, therefore, to 
retire to Sharpsburg, where we should be on the flank and rear 
of the enemy should he move against McLaws, and where 
we could more readily unite with the rest of our army. This 
movement was accomplished without interruption, and skil- 
fully and efficiently covered by the cavalry brigade of General 
Fitzhugh Lee. McClellan's advance did nor appear on the 
west side of the pass at Boonsville until about 8 A.M. on the 
following morning. 

The resistance that our troops had offered there gave Jack- 
son time to complete the reduction of Harper's Ferry. The 
attack on the garrison began at dawn on the 15th. A rapid 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 287 

and vigorous fire was opened both by the batteries of Jackson 
and those on Maryland and Loudon Heights. In about two 
hours the garrison surrendered. Eleven thousand men, 73 
pieces of artillery, about 13,000 small-arms, and a large quan- 
tity of military stores fell into our hands. 

The commands of Longstreet and D. H. Hill reached 
Sharpsburg on the morning of the 15th, Jackson arrived early 
on the 1 6th, and General J. G. Walker came up in the after- 
noon. General McLaws retained his position in Crampton 
Gap until the 14th, when, finding that he was not to be 
attacked, he gradually withdrew his command toward the 
Potomac, crossed at Harper's Ferry, and marched by way of 
Shepardstown, and therefore did not reach the battle-field of 
Sharpsburg until some time after the engagement of the 17th 
began. 

When his forces were approaching Frederick, General Lee, 
in obedience to instructions from the President, issued a proc- 
lamation to the people of Maryland, announcing the motives 
and purposes of his presence among them at the head of an 
invading army. 

After briefly reciting some of the acts of tyranny perpe 
trated by the Washington Administration on the people of 
Maryland, in arresting and imprisoning citizens upon no 
charge and contrary to the forms of law ; in usurping by armed 
force the government of the chief city ; in dissolving its leg- 
islature by the unlawful arrest of its members ; in suppressing 
freedom of the press and of speech ; and in reducing a com- 
monwealth, allied to the States of the South by the strongest 
social, commercial, and political ties, to the condition of a 
conquered province, General Lee added : 

" Believing that the people of Maryland possess a spirit 
too lofty to submit to such a government, the people of the 
South have long wished to aid you in throwing ofi this foreign 
yoke, to enable you again to enjoy the inalienable rights of 
freemen, and restore the independence and sovereignty of your 
State. In obedience to this wish our army has come among 
you, and is prepared to assist you with the power of its arms 
in regaining the rights of which you have been so unjustly 
despoiled. 



288 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

" This, citizens of Maryland, is our mission, so far as you 
are concerned. No restraint upon your free-will is intended ; 
no intimidation will be allowed, within the limits of the 
army at least Marylanders shall once more enjoy their 
ancient freedom of thought and speech. We know no enemies 
among you, and will protect all of you in every opinion." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 289 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 

On their arrival at Sharpsburg the commands of Long- 
street and D. H. Hill were placed in position along the range 
of hills between the town and the Antietam, nearly parallel 
to the course of that stream, Longstreet on the right of the 
road to Boonsboro, and Hill on the left. The advance of 
the enemy was delayed by Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, and he 
did not appear on the opposite side of the Antietam until 
about 2 P.M. During the afternoon the batteries on each side 
were partially engaged. On the i6th the artillery-fire became 
warm, and continued throughout the day. A column crossed 
the Antietam beyond the reach of our batteries and menaced 
our left. In anticipation of this movement Hood's two bri- 
gades had been transferred from the right and posted between 
D. H. Hill and the Hagerstown road. General Jackson was 
now directed to take position on Hood's left, and formed his 
line with his right resting on the Hagerstown road and his 
left extending toward the Potomac, protected by General 
Stuart with the cavalry and horse-artillery. General Walker 
with his two brigades was stationed on Longstreet's right. 
As evening approached, the enemy fired more vigorously with 
his artillery and bore down heavily with his infantry upon 
Hood, but the attack was gallantly repulsed. At 10 P.M. 
Hood's troops were relieved by the brigades of Lawton and 
Trimble, of Ewell's division, commanded by General Lawton. 
Jackson's own division, under General J. M. Jones, was on 
Lawton's left, supported by the remaining brigades of Ewell. 

At early dawn on the 17th his artillery opened vigorously 
from both sides of the Antietam, the heaviest fire being di- 
rected against our left. Under cover of this fire a large force 
of infantry attacked General Jackson's division. For several 
19 



290 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

hours the conflict raged with intense fury and alternate suc- 
cess. The enemy's lines were repeatedly broken and forced 
to retire. Fresh troops, however, soon replaced those that 
were beaten, and Jackson's men were in turn compelled to 
fall back. Nearly all the field officers, with a large proportion 
of the men, were killed or wounded. Our troops slowly 
yielded to overwhelming numbers and fell back, obstinately 
disputing every point. General Early, in command of Ewell's 
division, was ordered to take the place of Jackson's division, 
most of which was withdrawn, its ammunition being nearly 
exhausted and its numbers much reduced. The battle now 
raged with great violence, the small commands under Hood 
and Early holding their ground against many times their own 
infantry force and under a tremendous fire of artillery. Hood 
was reinforced ; then the enemy's lines were broken and driven 
back, but fresh numbers advanced to their support, and they 
began to gain ground. The desperate resistance they en- 
countered, however, delayed their progress until the troops 
of McLaws arrived, and those of General J. G. Walker could 
be brought from the right. Hood's brigade, though it had 
suffered extraordinary loss, only withdrew to replenish their 
ammunition, their supply being entirely exhausted. They 
were relieved by Walker's command, who attacked vigor- 
ously, driving his combatant back with much slaughter. 
Upon the arrival of the reinforcements under McLaws, Gen- 
eral Early attacked resolutely the large force opposed to him. 
McLaws advanced at the same time, and the forces before 
them were driven back in confusion, closely followed by our 
troops beyond the position occupied at the beginning of the 
engagement. 

The attack on our left was speedily followed by one in 
heavy force on the centre. This was met by part of Walker's 
division and the brigades of G. B. Anderson and Rodes, of 
D, H. Hill's command, assisted by a few pieces of artillery. 
General R, H. Anderson's division came to Hill's support, 
and formed in rear of his line. At this time, by a mistake 
of orders, Rodes's brigade was withdrawn from its position. 
During the absence of that command a column pressed 
through the gap thus created, and G. B. Anderson's brigade 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 29 1 

was broken and retired. The heavy masses moved forward, 
being opposed only by four pieces of artillery, supported by a 
few hundred of our men belonging to different brigades rallied 
by Hill and other officers, and parts of Walker's and R. H. 
Anderson's commands. Colonel Cooke, with the Twenty- 
seventh North Carolina regiment, stood boldly in line with- 
out a cartridge. The firm front presented by this small force, 
and the well-directed fire of the artillery, checked the prog- 
ress of the enemy, and in about an hour and a half he retired. 
Another attack was made soon afterward, a little farther to 
the right, but was repulsed by Miller's guns, c f the Washing- 
ton Artillery, which continued to hold the ground until the 
close of the engagement, supported by a part of R. H. Ander- 
son's troops.* 

While the attack on the centre and left was in progress, 
repeated efforts were made to force the passage of the bridge 
over the Antietam, opposite the right wing of Longstreet, 
commanded by General D. R. Jones. The bridge was de- 
fended by General Toombs with two regiments and the bat- 
teries of General Jones. This small command repulsed five 
different assaults, made by a greatly superior force. In the 
afternoon the enemy, in large numbers, having passed the 
stream, advanced against General Jones, who held the ridge 
with less than two thousand men. After a determined and 
brave resistance, he was forced to give way, and the summit 
was gained. General A. P. Hill, ordered to reinforce Gen- 
eral Jones, moved to his support and attacked the force now 
flushed with success. Hill's batteries were thrown forward 
and united their fire with those of Jones, and one of D. H. 
Hill's also opened with good effect from the left of the 
Boonsboro road. The progress of the enemy was immedi- 
ately arrested, and his line began to waver. At this moment 
General Jones ordered Toombs to charge the flank, while 
Archer, supported by Branch and Gregg, moved on the front 



* The corps designated the Washington Artillery was composed of Louisiana 
batteries, organized at New Orleans in the beginning of the war. It was dis- 
tinguished by its services in the first great battle of Manassas, and in nearly every 
important conflict, as well of the army of Virginia as that of Tennessee, to the 
close of the war. 



292 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

of the enemy's line. After a brief resistance he broke and 
retreated in confusion toward the Antietam, pursued by the 
troops of Hill and Jones, until he reached the protection of 
the batteries on the opposite side of the river. 

It was now nearly dark, and McClellan had massed a 
number of batteries to sweep the approach to the Antietam, 
on the opposite side of which the fresh corps of General Por- 
ter now appeared to dispute our advance. Our troops were 
much exhausted, and greatly reduced in numbers. Under 
these circumstances it was deemed injudicious to push our 
advantage further in the face of these fresh troops added to 
an army previously much exceeding the number of our own. 
Ours were accordingly recalled. The repulse on the right 
ended the engagement, a protracted and sanguinary conflict 
in which every effort to dislodge us from our position had 
been defeated with severe loss. 

This great battle was fought by less than forty thousand 
men on our side, all of whom had undergone the greatest labors 
and hardships in the field and on the march. Nothing could 
surpass the determined valor with which they met the large 
army of the enemy, fully supplied and equipped, and the result 
reflected the highest credit on the officers and men engaged. 

On the 1 8th our forces occupied the position of the pre- 
ceding day, except in the centre, where our line was drawn in 
about two hundred yards. Our ranks were increased by the 
arrival of a number of troops, who had not been engaged the 
day before, and, though still too weak to assume the offen- 
sive, Lee waited without apprehension a renewal of the at- 
tack. The day passed without any hostile demonstration. 
During the night of the i8th our army was withdrawn to the 
south side of the Potomac, crossing near Shepardstown, 
without loss or molestation. The enemy advanced on the 
next morning, but was held in check by General Fitzhugh 
Lee with his cavalry. The condition of our troops now de- 
manded repose, and the army marched to the Opequan, near 
Martinsburg, where it remained several days, and then moved 
to the vicinity of Bunker Hill and Winchester. General 
McClellan seemed to be concentrating in and near Harper's 
Ferry, but made no forward movement. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 293 

The contest on our left in this battle was the most violent. 
This and the privations of our men are very forcibly shown 
in the following account by Major-General Hood : 

" On the morning of the 15th my forces were again in mo- 
tion. My troops at this period were sorely in need of shoes, 
clothing, and food. We had had issued to us no meat for 
several days, and little or no bread ; the men had been forced 
to subsist principally on green corn and green apples. Never- 
theless they were in high spirits and defiant as we contended 
with the advanced guard of McClellan on the 15th and fore- 
noon of the i6th. During the afternoon of this day I was or- 
dered, after great fatigue and hunger endured by my soldiers, 
to take position near the Hagerstown turnpike, in open field 
in front of the Dunkard church. General Hooker's corps 
crossed the Antietam, swung round with its front on the pike, 
and about an hour before sunset encountered my division. I 
had stationed one or two batteries on a hillock in a meadow, 
near the edge of a corn-field, and just by the pike. The Texas 
brigade had been disposed on the left, and that of Law on the 
right. We opened fire, and a spirited action ensued, which 
lasted till a late hour in the night. When the firing had in a 
great measure ceased, we were so close to the enemy that we 
could distinctly hear him massing his heavy bodies in our 
immediate front. 

"The extreme suffering of my troops for want of food in- 
duced me to ride back to General Lee, and request him to 
send two or more brigades to our relief, in order that the sol- 
diers might have a chance to cook their meagre rations. He 
said that he would cheerfully do so, but he knew of no com- 
mand that could be spared for the purpose ; he, however, sug- 
gested that I should see General Jackson, and endeavor to 
obtain assistance from him. After riding a long time in 
search of the latter, I finally discovered him alone, lying upon 
the ground asleep by the root of a tree. I aroused him, and 
made known the half-starved condition of my troops ; he im- 
mediately ordered Lawton's, Trimble's, and Hays's brigades 
to our relief. He exacted of me a promise that I would 
come to the support of these forces the moment I was called 
upon. I quickly rode off in search of my wagons, that the 



294 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

men might prepare and cook their flour, as we were still 
without meat ; unfortunately, the night was then far ad- 
vanced, and, although every effort was made in the darkness 
to get the wagons forward, dawn of the morning of the 17th 
broke upon us before many of the men had time to do more 
than prepare the dough. Soon thereafter an officer of Law- 
ton's staff dashed up to me, saying, * General Lawton sends 
his compliments, with the request that you come at once to 
his support.' * To arms ! ' was instantly sounded, and quite 
a large number of my brave soldiers were again obliged 
to march to the front, leaving their uncooked rations in 
camp. 

" Not far distant in our front were drawn up, in close ar- 
ray, heavy columns of Federal infantry ; not less than two 
corps were in sight to oppose my small command, numbering 
approximately two thousand effectives. However, we moved 
forward to the assault. Notwithstanding the overwhelming 
odds of over ten to one against us, we drove the enemy from 
the wood and corn-field back upon his reserves, and forced 
him to abandon his guns on our left. This most deadly com- 
bat raged till our last round of ammunition was expended. 
The First Texas Regiment had lost in the corn-field fully 
two-thirds of its number; and whole ranks of brave men were 
mowed down in heaps to the right and left. . . . After 
several ineffectual efforts to procure reinforcements, and our 
last shot had been fired, I ordered my troops back to Dunkard 
church, for the same reason which had previously compelled 
Lawton, Hays, and Trimble to retire (a want of cartridges). 
Upon the arrival of McLaws's division we marched to the rear, 
renewed our supply of ammunition, and returned to our po- 
sition in the wood near the church, which ground we held till 
a late hour in the afternoon, when we moved somewhat far- 
ther to the right and bivouacked for the night. With the 
close of this bloody day ceased the hardest-fought battle of 
the war." 

The following account, by Colonel Taylor, is more com- 
prehensive : 

" On the afternoon of the i6th General McClellan directed 
an attack by Hooker's corps on the Confederate left — Hood's 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 295 

two brigades — and during the whole of the 17th the battle 
was waged, with varying intensity, along the entire line. 
When the issue was first joined, on the afternoon of the i6th, 
General Lee had with him less than eighteen thousand men, 
consisting of the commands of Longstreet and D. H, Hill, 
the two divisions of Jackson, and two brigades under Walker. 
Couriers were sent to the rear to hurry up the divisions of A. 
P. Hill, Anderson, and McLaws, hastening from Harper's 
Ferry, and these several commands, as they reached the front 
at intervals during the day, on the 17th, were immediately 
deployed and put to work. Every man was engaged. We 
had no reserve. 

" The fighting was heaviest and most continuous on the 
Confederate left. It is established by Federal evidence that 
the three corps of Hooker, Mansfield, and Sumner were com- 
pletely shattered in the repeated but fruitless efforts to turn 
this flank, and two of these corps were rendered useless for 
further aggressive movements. The aggregate strength of 
the attacking column at this point reached forty thousand 
men, not counting the two divisions of Franklin's corps, sent 
at a late hour in the day to rescue the Federal right from the 
impending danger of being itself destroyed ; while the Con- 
federates, from first to last, had less than fourteen thousand 
men on this flank, consisting of Jackson's two divisions, 
McLaws's division, and the two small divisions, of two 
brigades each, under Hood and Walker, with which to resist 
their fierce and oft-repeated assaults. The disproportion in 
the centre and on our right was as great as, or even more 
decided than, on our left." 

In the " Report of Committee on the Conduct of tne 
War," General Sumner testifies as follows : 

"General Hooker's corps was dispersed ; there is no ques- 
tion about that. I sent one of my staff-officers to find where 
they were, and General Rickets, the only officer he could find, 
said that he could not raise three hundred men of the corps. 
There were troops lying down on the left, which I took to 
belong to Mansfield's command. In the meantime General 
Mansfield had been killed, and a portion of his corps had also 
been thrown into confusion." 



296 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The testimony of General McClellan, in the same -Re- 
port," is to the same effect : , , ^ u a 
-The next morning (the i8th) I found that our loss had 
been so great, and there was so much disorganization in some 
of the commands, that I did not consider it proper to renew 
the attack that day, especially as I was sure of the arriva that 
day of two fresh divisions, amounting to about fifteen thou- 
sand men. As an instance of the condition of some o the 
troops that morning, I happen to recollect the returns of the 
First Corps, General Hooker's, made on the morning of the 
1 8th by which there were thirty-f^ve hundred men reported 
present for duty. Four days after that, the returns of the 
same corps showed thirteen thousand f^ve hundred. 

On the night of the 19th our forces crossed the Potomac, 
and some brigades of the enemy followed. In the morning 
General A. P Hill, who commanded the rear-guard, was 
ordered to drive them back. Having disposed his forces, an 
attack was made, and, as the foe massed in front of Genera 
Pender's brigade and endeavored to turn his flank, General 

Hill says, in his report : , ^ , 

" A simultaneous daring charge was made, and the enemy 
driven pell-mell into the river. Then commenced the most 
terrible slaughter that this war has yet witnessed Ihe 
broad surface of the Potomac was blue with the floating 
bodies of our foe. But few escaped to tell the ta e By 
their own account they lost three thousand men killed and 
drowned from one brigade alone. Some two hundred pris- 
oners were taken." 

General McClellan states, in his official report, that he had 
in this battle, in action, 87,164 men of all arms. 

The official reports of the commanding officers of our forces, 
made at the time, show our total effective infantry to have 
been ^7 2K^ The estimate made for the cavalry and artil- 
lery, which is rather excessive, is 8,000. This would make 
General Lee's entire strength 35,255- . . 

The official return of the Army of Northern Virginia on 
September 22, 1862, after its return to Virginia, and when 
the stragglers had rejoined their commands, shows present 
for duty 36,187 infantry and artillery. The cavalry, of which 



COxXFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 297 

there Is no return, would perhaps increase these fi^^ures to 
40,000 of all arms. "* 

The return of the United States Army of the Potomac on 
September 20, 1862, shows present for duty at that date of 
the commands that participated in the battle of Sharpsbiircr 
85,930 of all arms. ^' 

The loss of the enemy at Boonsboro and Sharpsburc. was 
14,794. "" 



298 



A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XLI. 

TREASURY REGULATIONS AND THE COTTON FAMINE. 

As early as July 13, 1861, the Government of the United 
States passed the first of a series of measures, the object ot 
which was practically and effectually to plunder us of a large 
portion of our cotton crop and secure its transportation to the 
manufacturers of Europe. The first of these measures author- 
ized the President to issue his proclamation declarmg the 
inhabitants of any of our States, or a portion of any oneoi 
them, to be in insurrection, and therefore all commercial in- 
tercourse became unlawful and was required to cease, and all 
croods and chattels, wares and merchandise, on the way to or 
from the State, or part of a State, were forfeited to the United 
States together with the vessel or vehicle in which they were 
conveyed Two effects were to follow this proclamation : 
first the cessation of all commercial intercourse with the citi- 
zens of the United States; second, the forfeiture of all vessels 
in transitu. When this condition had been reached the act 
then authorized the President, in his discretion, to reopen the 
trade in such articles, and for such time, and by such persons 
as he mi-ht think most conducive to the public interest. 
The articles of trade were chiefly cotton and tobacco ; the 
time during which the trade might be continued was evidently 
so Ion- as it could be used for the purpose in view ; the per- 
sons w^ere those who would most skilfully advance che end to 
be accomplished ; and the public interest was the collection 
and transportation of the cotton to the European manufac- 

turers 

One may search the Constitution of the United States 
in vain to find any grant of power to Congress by which it 
could be authorized to pass this act, much less to find any au- 
thority conferred upon the President to approve the act or to 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 299 

justify him in a violation of the oath he had taken to support 
and maintain the provisions of the Constitution. Congress 
was guilty of a most flagrant violation of the Constitution by 
the passage of the act ; and the President, instead of being a 
check upon the unconstitutional measure, for which object 
the veto power was granted to him, became, by his approval, 
an accomplice in the usurpation. For nothing is more evi- 
dent than that it is one of the powers reserved to the States 
to regulate the commercial intercourse between the citizens, 
to the extent even of the establishment of inspectors and 
quarantine regulations. 

Neither did a state of war authorize the Government of 
the United States to interfere with the commercial inter- 
course between the citizens of the States, although under the 
law of nations it might be so justified with regard to foreign 
enemies. But this relation it persistently refused to concede 
to the Confederate States or to their citizens. It constantly 
asserted that they were its subjects in a state of insurrection ; 
if so, they were equally entitled to the provisions of the 
Constitution for their protection as well as to its penalties. 
Still less could the Government make an absolute forfeiture 
of the goods seized. 

That a state of war did not enlarge the powers of the 
Government, as was assumed by this act, was expressly de- 
cided by Chief-Justice Taney in a case that arose under the 
act. One Carpenter refused or neglected to obtain the per- 
mit required, and his goods were seized. He contested the 
right of seizure, and the Chief-Justice gave a decision at Bal- 
timore in May, 1863. He said : 

" Undoubtedly the United States authorities may take 
proper measures to prevent trade or intercourse with the 
enemy. But it does not by any means follow that they dis- 
regard the limits of all their own powers as prescribed by the 
Constitution or the rights and powers reserved to the States 
or to the people. 

" A civil war, or any other, does not enlarge the powers 
of the Federal Government over the States or the people 
beyond what the compact has given to it in time of war. A 
state of war does not annul the Tenth Article of the Amend- 



30O A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

merit of the Constitution, which declares that * the powers 
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively or to the people.' Nor does a civil war, or any 
other war, absolve the judicial department from the duty of 
maintaining with an even and firm hand the rights and pow- 
ers of the Federal Government, and of the States and of the 
citizens, as they are written in the Constitution, which every 
judge is bound to support. . . . The Court is of opin- 
ion that the regulations in question are illegal and void, and 
that the seizure of the goods of the said Carpenter, because 
he refused to comply with them, cannot be sustained." 

The proclamation of the President required by the act 
issued on August i6, 1861, declared certain States and parts 
of States to be in insurrection, etc. Under it some licenses 
were issued to places in Kentucky and Missouri, without any 
fruitful results. Some strong military and naval expeditions 
were fitted out to invade us and occupy the ports where cot- 
ton and other valuable products were usually shipped. An 
advance was made up the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, 
and down the Mississippi. The ports of Beaufort, Port Royal, 
and New Orleans were declared to be open for trade under 
the new system. Licenses were granted to foreign vessels by 
United States consuls, and to coasting vessels by the Treas- 
ury Department, and the blockade was relaxed as far as related 
to those ports, except as " to persons, property, and informa- 
tion contraband of war." Collectors were appointed at these 
ports, and a circular was addressed to the foreign ministers 
at Washington announcing the reopening of communication 
with conquered Southern localities. 

Again, on March 3, 1863, an act was passed which author- 
ized the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint special agents 
to receive and collect all abandoned and captured property 
in any State, or portion of a State, designated as in insurrec- 
tion. Under this act a paper division of the whole of our ter- 
ritory was made into five special districts, and to each a special 
agent was appointed with numerous assistants. Abandoned 
property was declared to be that which had been deserted by its 
owners, or that which had been voluntarily abandoned by them 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 301 

to the civil or military authorities of the United States. 
Property which had been seized or taken from hostile posses- 
sors by the military or naval forces was also to be turned 
over to the special agents to be sold. All property not trans- 
ported in accordance with the Treasury regulations was for- 
feitable. All expenses incurred in relation to the property 
were charged upon it. 

On September 11, 1863, revised regulations were issued 
by the Secretary, which divided the country into thirteen 
districts, from Wheeling, W. Va., to Natchez, on the Missis- 
sippi, and a complete system of transportation and trade was 
organized. In December, 1864, new regulations were issued, 
which authorized the purchase of our products at certain 
points, from any person, with bonds furnished by the Treas- 
ury. The products were sold, transportation was allowed, 
and the proceeds were made to constitute a fund for further 
purchases. A vigorous traffic sprang up under these regula- 
tions, which were suspended by an order from General Grant, 
issued on March 10, 1865, and revoked on April nth by 
himself. 

On April 29, 1865, all restrictions upon internal, domestic, 
and coastwise commercial intercourse with all the country 
east of the Mississippi River were discontinued. 

But before these unconstitutional measures were aban- 
doned great distress had arisen among the working-classes of 
Europe, in consequence of the failure of the supply of cotton 
to their manufacturing districts. The foreign necessity for 
our cotton was represented in these words of Her Britannic 
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on May 6, 
1862: 

" Thousands are now obliged to resort to the poor-rates for 
subsistence, owing to this blockade, yet Her Majesty's Gov- 
ernment have not sought to take advantage of the obvious 
imperfection of this blockade in order to declare it ineffective. 
They have, to the loss and detriment of the British nation, 
scrupulously observed the duties of Great Britain to a 
friendly state." 

The severity of the distress thus alluded to was such, both 
in Great Britain and France, as to produce an intervention of 



302 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the governments of those countries to alleviate it. Instead, 
however, of adopting those measures required in the exercise 
of justice to the Confederacy, and which would have been 
sustained by the laws of nations, by declaring the blockade 
*' ineffective," as it really was, they sought, through infor- 
mal application to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State of the 
United States, to obtain opportunities for an increased ex- 
portation of cotton from the Confederacy. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



303 



CHAPTER XLII. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA. 

About the middle of October, 1862, General McClellan 
crossed the Potomac, east of the Blue Ridge, and advanced 
southward, seizing the passes of the mountains as he pro- 
gressed. In the latter part of the month he began to incline 
eastwardly from the mountains, moving in the direction of 
Warrenton, about which he finally concentrated. 

On November 15th the enemy was in motion, and on the 
2 1st it became apparent that the whole army — now under 
Burnside, who had superseded McClellan — was concentrating 
on the north side of the Rappahannock. About November 
26th Jackson was directed to advance toward Fredericksburg, 
and as some of the enemy's gunboats had appeared in the 
river at Port Royal, and it was possible that an attempt 
might be made to cross in that vicinity, D. H. Hill's divi- 
sion was stationed near that place, and the rest of Jackson's 
corps so disposed as to support Hill or Longstreet, as occasion 
might require. The fords of the Rappahannock above Fred- 
ericksburg were closely guarded by our cavalry, and the river 
above and below Port Royal Avas watched by W. H. F. Lee's 
brigade. The interval before the advance of the enemy was 
employed in strengthening our lines, which extended from 
the river about a mile and a half above Fredericksburg, along 
the range of hills in the rear of the city to the Richmond 
railroad. 

As these hills were commanded by the opposite heights, 
in possession of Burnside's force, earthworks were constructed 
on their crest at the most eligible positions for artillery. To 
prevent gunboats from ascending the river, a battery was 
placed four miles below the city. The plain of Fredericks- 
burg is so completely commanded by the Stafford Heights 



304 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

that no effectual opposition could be made to the passage of 
the river without exposing our troops to the destructive fire 
of the numerous batteries on the opposite heights. At the 
same time the narrowness of the Rappahannock and its wind- 
ing course presented opportunities for laying down pontoon 
bridges at points secure from the fire of our artillery. Our 
position was therefore selected with a view to resist an ad- 
vance after crossing, and the river was guarded by detach- 
ments of sharpshooters to impede the laying of pontoons 
until our army could be prepared for action. 

Before dawn, December nth, Burnside was in motion. 
About 2 P.M. he began preparations to throw two bridges over 
the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericksburg, and one about a 
mile and a quarter below, near the mouth of the Deep Run. 
From daybreak until 4 P.M. the troops, sheltered behind the 
houses on the river-bank, repelled his repeated efforts to lay 
bridges opposite the town, driving back his working parties and 
their supports with great slaughter. At the lower point, where 
there was no such protection, he was successfully resisted un- 
til nearly noon, when, being exposed to the severe fire of the 
batteries on the opposite heights, our troops were withdrawn 
and the bridge was completed. Soon afterward 150 pieces of 
artillery opened a furious fire on the city, causing our troops 
to retire from the river-bank about 4 P.M. The enemy then 
crossed in boats, and proceeded rapidly to lay down the bridges. 
His advance into the town was bravely contested until dark, 
when our troops were recalled, the necessary time for concen- 
tration having been gained. 

The enemy was prevented from constructing bridges, and 
his attempts to cross by boats, under the cover of artillery and 
musketry fire, were repelled until late in the afternoon, when 
General Barksdale, who commanded our force in Fredericks- 
burg, was ordered to retire. During the night of the succeed- 
ing day the enemy crossed in large numbers at and below the 
town, secured from material interruption by a dense fog. 

Shortly after 9 A.M. the partial rising of the mist disclosed 
a large force moving in line of battle against Jackson. Dense 
masses appeared in front of A. P. Hill, stretching far up the 
river in the direction of Fredericksburg. As they advanced, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 305 

Major Pellham, of Stuart's horse-artillery, opened a rapid and 
well-directed enfilade fire, which arrested their progress. 

Four batteries were immediately turned upon him, and 
upon his withdrawal the enemy extended his left down the 
Port Royal road, and his numerous batteries opened with vio-or 
upon Jackson's line. Eliciting no response, his infantry moved 
forward to seize the position occupied by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Walker, who, reserving the fire of his fourteen pieces until 
their line had approached within less than eight hundred 
yards, opened fire upon it with such destructive effect as to 
cause it to waver and soon retreat in confusion. 

About I P.M. the main attack on the right began by a fu- 
rious cannonade, under cover of which three compact lines of 
infantry advanced against Hill's front. The contest soon be- 
came fierce and bloody. Archer and Lane, who occupied the 
edge of a wood, repulsed those portions of the line immedi- 
ately in front of them ; but, before the interval between these 
commands could be closed, the assailants pressed through 
in overwhelming numbers and turned the left of Archer and 
the right of Lane. Attacked in front and flank, two regiments 
of Archer and a brigade of Lane, after a brave resistance, gave 
way. Archer held his line until the arrival of reinforcements. 
Thomas came to the relief of Lane, repulsed the column that 
had broken his line, and drove it back to the railroad. Li 
the meantime a large force had penetrated the wood as far as 
Hill's reserve, where it was met by a fire for which it was not 
prepared. The Federals were allowed to approach quite 
near, when Gregg's South Carolina brigade poured a wither- 
ing fire into the faces of Meade's men, and Early's division 
from the second line swept forward. The contest in the 
woods was short and decisive. The enemy was quickly routed 
and driven out with very heavy loss, and, though largely re- 
inforced, was pressed back and pursued to the shelter of the 
railroad embankment. Here he was gallantly charged by the 
brigades of Hoke and Atkinson, and driven across the plain 
to his batteries. The attack on Hill's left was repulsed by the 
artillery on that part of the line, against which a hot fire from 
twenty-four guns was directed. The repulse of the foe on 
our right was decisive, and the attack was not renewed, but 



306 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

his batteries kept up an active fire at intervals, and sharp- 
shooters skirmished along the front during the afternoon. 

While these events were occurring on our right, the 
enemy, in formidable numbers, made repeated and desperate 
assaults upon the left of our line. About 1 1 A.M., having 
massed his troops under cover of the houses of Fredericks- 
burg, he moved forward in strong columns to seize Marye's 
and Willis's Hills. All his batteries on the Stafford Heights 
directed their fire upon the positions occupied by our artillery, 
with a view to silence it, and cover the movement of the 
infantry. Without replying to this furious cannonade, our 
batteries poured a rapid and destructive fire into the dense 
lines of the infantry as they advanced to the attack, frequently 
breaking their ranks, and forcing them to retreat to the 
shelter of the houses. Notwithstanding the havoc inflicted 
by our batteries, six times did he press on with great deter- 
mination to within one hundred yards of the foot of the hill ; 
but here, encountering the deadly fire of our infantry, his 
columns were broken, and fled in confusion to the town. The 
last assault was made shortly before dark. This effort met the 
fate of those that preceded it, and, when night closed in, his 
shattered masses had disappeared into the town, leaving the 
field covered with his dead and wounded. 

During the night our lines were strengthened by the con- 
struction of earthworks at exposed points, and preparations 
made to receive the enemy on the next day. The 14th 
passed without a renewal of the attack. The hostile batter- 
ies on both sides of the river played upon our lines at inter- 
vals, our own firing but little. On the 15th Burnside still 
retained his position, apparently ready for battle, but the day 
passed as the preceding. But, on the morning of the i6th, it 
was discovered that he had availed himself of the darkness of 
the night and the prevalence of a violent storm of wind and 
rain to recross the river. The town was immediately reoccu- 
pied, and our positions on the river bank were resumed. 

In the engagement we captured more than 900 prisoners 
and 9,000 stand of arms. A large quantity of ammunition 
was found in Fredericksburg. On our side 458 were killed 
and 3,743 wounded; total, 4,201. The loss of the enemy 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 307 

was 1,152 killed, 9,101 wounded, and 3,234 missing; total, 

13,487- 

General Burnside subsequently testified that he "had 
about 100,000 men on the south side of the river, and every 
single man of them was under artillery fire, and about half of 
them were at different times formed in columns of attack." 

Less than 20,000 Confederate troops were actively en- 
gaged. This number composed about one-fourth of the army 
under General Lee. The returns of the Army of Northern 
Virginia show that on December 10, 1862, General Lee had 
present for duty 78,228, and, on December 20th, 75,524 of 
all arms. 

After the battle of Fredericksburg the Army of Northern 
Virginia remained encamped on the south side of the Rappa- 
hannock until the latter part of April, 1863. The Federal 
army occupied the north side of the river opposite Fredericks- 
burg, extending to the Potomac. Two brigades of Ander- 
son's division were stationed near United States Mine or 
Bank Mill Ford. The cavalry was distributed on both flanks. 
Longstreet, with two divisions, had been detached for service 
south of James River in February, and did not rejoin the 
army until after the battle of Chancellorsville. 

Excepting a cavalry engagement near Kelly's Ford, on 
March 17th, nothing of interest occurred during this period 
of inactivity. But the cavalry movements indicated that the 
army, now commanded by Hooker, was about to resume ac- 
tive operations. 

On the 28th, early in the morning, the enemy crossed the 
river in boats near Fredericksburg, laid a pontoon-bridge, and 
built another about a mile below. A considerable force 
crossed on these bridges during the day, and was massed 
under the high banks of the river, which afforded protection 
from our artillery, while the batteries on the opposite heights 
completely commanded the wide plain between our lines and 
the narrow river. On the 29th it was reported that he had 
crossed in force near Kelly's Ford, and that a heavy column 
was moving from Kelly's toward German ia Ford on the Rap- 
idan, and another teward Ely's Ford. The routes they were 
pursuing, after crossing the Rapidan, converged near Chan- 



308 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

cellorsville, whence several roads led to the rear of our posi- 
tion at Fredericksburg. General Anderson proceeded to 
cover these roads on the 29th, but, learning that the enemy- 
had crossed the Rapidan and was approaching in strong force, 
he retired early on the next morning to the intersection of the 
Mine and plank roads near Tabernacle Church, and began to 
intrench himself. His rear-guard, as he left Chancellorsville, 
was attacked by cavalry, but, being vigorously repulsed, they 
offered no further opposition to his march. 

The enemy on our front near Fredericksburg continued 
inactive, and it was now apparent that the main attack would 
be made upon our flank and rear. It Avas therefore deter- 
mined to leave suflficient troops to hold our lines, and with 
the main body of the army to give battle to the approaching 
column. Early's division and Barksdale's brigade, with part 
of the reserve artillery under Pendleton, were intrusted with 
the defence of our position at Fredericksburg, and at mid- 
night on the 30th McLaws marched with the rest of his com- 
mand toward Chancellorsville. Jackson followed at dawn 
next morning with the remaining divisions of his corps, 
reached the position occupied by General Anderson at 8 a.m., 
and immediately began to make preparations to advance. At 
II A.M. the troops moved forward on the plank and old turn- 
pike roads. The enemy was soon encountered on both roads, 
and heavy skirmishing with infantry and artillery ensued, 
our troops pressing steadily forward. A strong attack upon 
McLaws was repulsed with spirit by Semmes's brigade ; and 
General Wright, diverging to the left of the plank road, 
marched by way of the unfinished railroad from Fredericks- 
burg to Gordonsville and turned the Federal right. His 
whole line thereupon retreated rapidly, vigorously pursued by 
our troops until they arrived within about one mile of Chan- 
cellorsville. Here the enemy had assumed a position of great 
natural strength, surrounded on all sides by a dense forest 
filled with a tangled undergrowth, in the midst of which 
breastworks of logs had been constructed, with trees felled in 
front so as to form an almost impenetrable abatis. His artil- 
lery swept the few narrow roads by which his position could 
be approached from the front, and commanded the adjacent 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 309 

woods. The left of his line extended from Chancellorsville 
toward the Rappahannock, covering the Bank Mill Ford, 
where he communicated with the north bank of the river by 
a pontoon-bridge. His right stretched westward along the 
Germania Ford road more than two miles. Darkness was 
approaching before the strength and extent of his line could 
be ascertained ; and, as the nature of the country rendered it 
hazardous to attack by night, our troops were halted and 
formed in line of battle in front of Chancellorsville, at right 
angles to the plank road, extending on the right to the Mine 
road, and to the left in the direction of the " Furnace." 

It Avas evident that a direct attack would be attended with 
great difiRculty and loss, in view of the strength of the enemy's 
position and his superiority of numbers. It was therefore re- 
solved to endeavor to turn his right flank and gain his rear, 
leaving a force in front to hold him in check and conceal 
the movement. The execution of this plan was intrusted to 
Jackson with his three divisions. The commands of McLaws 
and Anderson remained in front of the enemy. Early on 
the morning of the 2d, Jackson marched by the Furnace and 
Brock roads, his movement being effectually covered by Fitz- 
hugh Lee's cavalry under General Stuart. As the rear of his 
train was passing the Furnace a large force of the enemy ad- 
vanced from Chancellorsville and attempted its capture, but 
this advance was arrested. After a long and fatiguing march 
General Jackson's leading division, under General Rodes, 
reached the old turnpike about three miles in rear of Chancel- 
lorsville at 4 P.M. As the different divisions arrived they 
were formed at right angles to the road. At 6 P.M. the ad- 
vance was ordered. The enemy was taken by surprise, and 
fled after a brief resistance. Position after position was car- 
ried, the guns were captured, and every effort of the foe to rally 
was defeated by the impetuous rush of our troops. In the 
ardor of pursuit through the thick and tangled woods, the first 
and second lines at last became mingled and moved on together 
as one. The fugitives made a stand at a line of breastworks 
across the road, but the troops of Rodes and Colston dashed 
over the intrenchments together, and the flight and pursuit 
were resumed and continued until our advance was arrested by 



3IO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the abatis in front of the line of works near the central posi- 
tion at Chancellorsville. It was now dark. Jackson ordered 
the third line, under Hill, to relieve the troops of Rodes and 
Colston, who were completely blended and in such disorder 
from their advance through intricate woods and over broken 
ground that it was necessary to reform them. As Hill's men 
moved forward, Jackson, with his staff and escort, returning 
from the extreme front, met the skirmishers advancing, and in 
the obscurity of the night were mistaken for the enemy and 
fired upon. Captain Boswell and several others were killed, 
and a number wounded, among whom was General Jack- 
son, who was borne from the field. The command now de- 
volved upon General Hill, whose division, under General 
Heth, was advanced to the line of intrenchments which had 
been reached by Rodes and Colston. A furious fire of artil- 
lery was opened upon them, under cover of which infantry 
advanced to the attack, but were handsomely repulsed. Hill 
was soon afterward disabled, and the command was turned 
over to Stuart. He immediately proceeded to reconnoitre 
the ground and make himself acquainted with the disposition 
of the troops. The darkness of the night and the diflficulty 
of moving through the woods and undergrowth rendered it 
advisable to defer further operations until morning, and the 
troops rested on their arms in line of battle. 

As soon as the sound of cannon gave notice of Jackson's 
attack on the enemy's right, the troops in front began to 
press strongly on the left to prevent reinforcements being 
sent to the point assailed. They advanced up to the intrench- 
ments, while several batteries played with good effect until 
prevented by the increasing darkness. 

Early on the morning of May 3d Stuart renewed the attack 
upon Hooker, who had strengthened his right wing during 
the night with additional breastworks, while a large number 
of guns, protected by intrenchments, were posted so as to 
sweep the woods through which our troops had to advance. 
Hill's division was in front, with Colston in the second line, 
and Rodes in the third. The second and third lines soon 
advanced to the support of the first, and the whole became 
hotly engaged. The breastworks, at which the attack was 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 311 

suspended on the preceding evening, were carried by assault, 
under a terrible fire of musketry and artillery. In rear of 
these breastworks was a barricade, from which the enemy was 
quickly driven. The troops on the left of the plank road, 
pressing through the woods, attacked and broke the next line, 
while those on the right bravely assailed the extensive earth- 
works behind which General Hooker's artillery was posted. 
Three times were these works carried, and as often were the 
brave assailants compelled to abandon them — twice by the 
retirement of the troops on their left, who fell back after a 
gallant struggle with superior numbers, and once by a move- 
ment of the enemy on their right caused by the advance of 
General Anderson. The left, being reinforced, finally suc- 
ceeded in driving back the enemy, and the artillery began to 
play with great precision and effect. In the meantime, Ander- 
son pressed forward upon Chancellorsville, his right resting 
upon the plank road and his left extending around the Fur- 
nace, while McLaws made a strong demonstration to the right 
of the road. As the troops advancing upon the enemy's 
front and right converged upon his central position, Ander- 
son effected a junction with Jackson's corps, and the whole 
line pressed irresistibly. Hooker's army was driven from all 
its fortified positions with heavy loss in killed, wounded, and 
prisoners, and retreated toward the Rappahannock. By 
10 A.M. we were in full possession of the field. 

The troops, having become somewhat scattered by the 
difificulties of the ground and the ardor of the contest, were 
immediately reformed, preparatory to renewing the attack. 
The enemy had withdrawn to a strong position nearer to the 
Rappahannock, which he had fortified. His superiority of 
numbers, the unfavorable nature of the ground, which was 
densely wooded, and the condition of our troops, after the 
arduous and sanguinary conflict in which they had been 
engaged, rendered great caution necessary. Our operations 
were just completed when further movements were arrested 
by intelligence received from Fredericksburg. 

Before dawn, on the morning of the 3d, it was known that 
the enemy had occupied Fredericksburg in large force, and 
laid down a bridge at the town. He made a demonstration 



312 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

against the extreme right of the force left to hold our lines, 
which was easily repulsed by General Early. Soon afterward 
a column moved from Fredericksburg along the river banks, 
as if to gain the heights on the extreme left which commanded 
those immediately in rear of the town. This attempt was 
foiled. Very soon the enemy advanced in large force against 
Marye's, and the hills to the right and left of it. Two assaults 
were gallantly repulsed. After the second, a flag of truce 
was sent from the town to obtain permission to provide for 
the wounded. Three heavy lines advanced immediately upon 
the return of the flag and renewed the attack. They were 
bravely repulsed on the right and left, but the small force 
at the foot of Marye's Hill, overpowered by more than ten 
times their number, was captured after an heroic resistance, 
and the hill carried. The success of the enemy enabled him 
to threaten our communications by moving down the Tele- 
graph road, or to come upon our rear at Chancellorsville by 
the plank road. He began to advance on the plank road, his 
progress being gallantly disputed by the brigade of General 
Wilcox, who fell back slowly until he reached Salem Church, 
on the plank road, about five miles from Fredericksburg. 

In this state of affairs in our rear, General Lee led General 
McLaws with his three brigades to reinforce General Wilcox. 
He arrived at Salem Church early in the afternoon, where he 
found General Wilcox in line of battle, with a large force of 
the enemy — consisting, as was reported, of one army corps 
and part of another — in his front. The enemy's artillery 
played vigorously upon our position for some time, when his 
infantry advanced in three strong lines, the attack being 
directed mainly against General Wilcox, but partially involv- 
ing the brigades on his left. After a fierce struggle the first 
line was repulsed with great slaughter. The second then 
came forward, but immediately broke under the close and 
deadly fire which it encountered, and the whole mass fled in 
confusion to the rear. They were pursued by the brigades of 
Wilcox and Semmes, which advanced nearly a mile, when 
they were halted to reform in the presence of the hostile 
reserve, which now appeared in large force. It being quite 
dark, General Wilcox deemed it imprudent to push the attack 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



313 



with his small numbers, and retired to his original position 
the enemy making no attempt to follow. The next morning 
General Early advanced along the Telegraph road, and re- 
captured Marye's and the adjacent hills without difficulty, 
thus gaining the rear of the enemy's left. In the meantime 
General Hooker had so strengthened his position near Chan- 
cellorsville, that it was deemed inexpedient to assail it with 
less than our whole force, which had been reduced by the 
detachment led to Fredericksburg to relieve us from the 
danger that menaced our rear. 

Longstreet had previously been sent with two divisions 
of Lee's army to co-operate with French in the capture of Suf- 
folk, the occupation of which by the enemy interrupted our 
collection of supplies in the eastern counties of North Caro- 
lina and Virginia. When the advance of Hooker threatened 
Lee's front, instructions were sent to Longstreet to hasten his 
return to the army. These instructions were repeated with 
urgent insistence, yet his movements were so delayed that, 
though the battle of Chancellorsville did not occur until many 
days after he was expected to join, his force was absent when 
it occurred. Had he rejoined his command in due time, Lee 
need not have diminished his force in front of Hooker, so as 
to delay the renewal of the attack and force him to a pre- 
cipitate retreat, involving the loss of his artillery and trains. 
It was accordingly resolved still further to reinforce the 
troops in front, in order, if possible, to drive Hooker across 
the Rappahannock. 

Some delay occurred in getting the troops into position, 
owing to the broken and irregular nature of the ground, and 
the difficulty of ascertaining the disposition of the opposing 
forces. The attack did not begin until 6 P.M., when the en- 
emy's troops were rapidly driven across the plank road in 
the direction of the Rappahannock. The speedy approach of 
darkness prevented McLaws from perceiving the success of 
the attack, until the foe began to recross the river a short 
distance below Banks's Ford, where he had laid one of his 
pontoon-bridges. His right brigades advanced through the 
woods in the direction of the firing, but the retreat was so 
rapid that they could only join in the pursuit. A dense fog 



314 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

settled over the field, increasing the obscurity and rendering 
great caution necessary to avoid collision between our own 
troops. Their movements were consequently slow. 

The next morning it was found that the enemy had made 
good his escape and removed his bridges. Fredericksburg 
was evacuated, and our rear no longer threatened. But, as 
Hooker had it in his power to recross, it was deemed best to 
leave a force to hold our lines as before. McLaws and Ander- 
son, directed to return to Chancellorsville, reached their des- 
tination during the afternoon, in the midst of a violent storm, 
which continued throughout the night and most of the follow- 
ing day. Preparations were made to assail the enemy's works 
at daylight on the 6th, but, on advancing our skirmishers, it 
was found that, under cover of the storm and darkness of the 
night, he had retreated over the river. A detachment was 
left to guard the battle-field, while the wounded were removed 
and the captured property was collected. The rest of the 
army returned to its former position. 

The loss of the enemy was 1,512 killed and 9,518 
wounded; total, 11,030. His dead and a large number of 
wounded were left on the field. About 5,000 prisoners, ex- 
clusive of the wounded, were taken; and 13 pieces of artillery, 
19,500 stand of arms, 17 colors, and a large quantity of am- 
munition fell into our hands. 

Our loss was much less in killed and wounded than tha.. 
of the enemy, but of the number was one — a host in himself 
— Lieutenant-General Jackson — who was wounded, and died 
on May loth. 

Of this great captain General Lee, in his anguish, justly 
said, " I have lost my right arm." As an executive officer 
he had no superior, and war has seldom shown an equal. Too 
devoted to the cause he served to have any selfishness, he 
shared the toils, privations, and dangers of his troops when in 
chief command ; and in subordinate positions his aim was to 
understand the purpose of his commander and faithfully to 
promote its success. He was the complement of Lee ; united, 
they had achieved such results that the public felt secure 
under their shield. To us his place was never filled. 

The official return of the Army of Northern Virginia, on 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 315 

March 31, 1863, shows as present for duty 57,112, of which 
6,509 were cavalry and 1,621 reserve artillery. On May 20th, 
two weeks after the battle, and when Pickett's and Hood's 
divisions had rejoined the army, the total infantry force num- 
bered but 55,261 effective men, from which, if the strength of 
Hood's and Pickett's divisions is deducted, there would re- 
main 41,358 as the strength of the commands that partici- 
pated in the battles of Chancellorsville. 

The Army of the Potomac numbered 120,000 men, infan- 
try and artillery, with a body of 12,000 well-equipped cavalry 
and an artillery force of 400 guns. 



3l6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

At the close of the first year of the war the leading Gov- 
ernments of Europe had recognized the Confederate States 
as a belligerent power, and continued such recognition to the 
close. Our representative in London was Mr. Mason ; in 
Paris, Mr. Slidell ; in Spain, Mr. Rost ; in Belgium, Mr. 
Mann. Competent and zealous, they yet were unsuccessful 
in obtaining our recognition as an independent power. 

Misled by the falsifications of the representatives of 
the United States the powers of Europe announced their 
determination to refuse to assume to judge between the 
conflicting accounts of the two parties as to the true nature 
of their previous relations. The Governments of Great Brit- 
ain and • France accordingly signified their intention to con- 
fine themselves to recognizing the self-evident fact of the ex- 
istence of a war, and to maintain a strict neutrality during its 
progress. It soon became evident that by some understand- 
ing, express or tacit, Europe had decided to leave the initia- 
tive in all action relative to our conflict to England and 
France, as they had the largest interests involved in it. 

This action, although ostensibly neutral, was in fact a de- 
cision against us, and injurious in its effects. One immediate 
and necessary result was the prolongation of hostilities to 
which our enemies were thereby encouraged ; for had those 
powers promptly admitted our right to be treated as all other 
independent nations, the moral effect of such action would 
have been to dispel the pretension under which the Govern- 
ment persisted in their efforts to accomplish our subjugation. 

There were other matters in which less than justice was 
rendered to the Confederacy by " neutral " Europe, and undue 
advantage conferred on the aggressors in a wicked war ; and 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 317 

it was especially in relation to the so-called blockade that the 
policy of the European powers was so shaped as to cause the 
greatest injury to the Confederacy, and to confer signal ad- 
vantages on the United States. A few words in explanation 
may here be necessary. 

Previous to 1856 the principles regulating blockades were 
often conflicting and uncertain. To remedy the evils result- 
ing from the doubts as to the true rules of maritime law, the 
five great powers in 1856 adopted a declaration of principles, 
by which they pledged themselves to be governed in future 
wars. To these rules every European power yielded its as- 
sent ; and the United States, while declining to assent to the 
proposition which prohibited privateering, declared that the 
three remaining principles were in entire accordance with our 
own views of international law. 

The four principles thus promulgated and adopted by all 
Europe were that "privateering is and remains abolished;" 
that " the neutral flag covers enemy's goods, excepting con- 
traband of war ; " that " neutral goods, excepting contraband 
of war, are not liable to capture under enemy's flag ; " that 
"blockades, to be binding, must be effective; that is to say, 
maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the 
coast of the enemy." 

There is no other instance in history of the adoption of 
rules of public law under circumstances of like solemnity, with 
like unanimity, and pledging the faith of nations with a sanc- 
tity so peculiar. 

When, therefore, this Confederacy was formed, and when 
neutral powers while deferring action on its demand for ad- 
mission into the family of nations, recognized it as a belligerent 
power. Great Britain and France made informal proposals, 
about the same time, that their own rights as neutrals should 
be guaranteed by our acceding, as belligerents, to the decla- 
ration of principles made by the Congress of Paris. The re- 
quest was addressed to our sense of justice, and therefore met 
immediate and favorable response in the resolutions of the 
Provisional Congress of August 13, 1861, by which all the 
principles announced by the Congress of Paris were adopted 
as the guide of our conduct during the war, with the sole ex- 



3l8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

ception of that relative to privateering. As the right to make 
use of privateers was one in which neutral nations had, as to 
the then existing war, no interest ; as it was a right which the 
United States had refused to abandon, and which they re- 
mained at liberty to use against us ; as it was a right of which 
we were in actual enjoyment, and which we could not be ex- 
pected to r^nouncQ Jlagrafite bello against an adversary pos- 
sessing an overwhelming superiority of naval forces, it was 
reserved, with entire confidence that neutral nations could not 
fail to perceive that just reason existed for the reservation. 
Nor was this confidence misplaced ; for the ofificial documents 
published by the British Government contained the expres- 
sion of the satisfaction of that Government with the conduct 
of the officials who transacted successfully the delicate busi- 
ness intrusted to their care. 

These solemn declarations of principle, this implied agree- 
ment between the Confederacy and the two powers just 
named, were suffered to remain irLoperative against the men- 
aces and outrages on neutral rights committed by the United 
States with unceasing and progressive arrogance during the 
whole period of the war. Neutral Europe remained passive 
while the United States, with a naval force insufficient to 
blockade effectively the coast of a single State, proclaimed a 
paper blockade of thousands of miles of coast, extending from 
the Capes of the Chesapeake to those of Florida, and encir- 
cling the Gulf of Mexico from Key West to the mouth of the 
Rio Grande. Compared with this monstrous pretension of 
the United States, the blockades known in history under the 
names of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, and the British Or- 
ders in Council, in the years 1806 and 1807, sink into insignifi- 
cance. Those blockades were justified by the powers that 
declared them, on the sole ground that they were retaliatory; 
yet they have since been condemned by the publicists of those 
very powers as violations of international law. Those block- 
ades evoked angry remonstrances from neutral powers, among 
which the United States were the most conspicuous, and 
in their consequences were the chief cause of the war between 
Great Britain and the United States in 18 12. They formed 
one of the principal motives that led to the declaration of the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 319 

Congress of Paris in 1856, in the fond hope of imposing an en- 
during check on the very abuse of maritime power which was 
renewed by the United States in 1861 and 1862, under cir- 
cumstances and with features of aggravated wrong without 
precedent in history. 

Repeated and formal remonstrances were made by the 
Confederate Government to neutral powers against the rec- 
ognition of that blockade. It was demonstrated by evidence 
undisputed and indisputable that the blockaded ports were so 
insufficiently invested that hundreds of entries were effected 
into them after the declaration of blockade ; that the enemy 
admitted the fact, and made it an excuse for the odious bar- 
barity of destroying a harbor by sinking vessels laden with 
stone in the entrance of it ; that they had not only seized 
vessels attempting to enter Confederate ports, but captured 
neutral vessels whenever supposed to be bound to any point 
on our extensive coast, without inquiring whether a single 
blockading vessel was to be found at such point ; in a word, 
that every prescription of maritime law and every right of 
neutral nations to trade with a belligerent under the sanction 
of principles heretofore universally respected were systemati- 
cally and persistently violated by the United States. 

Neutral Europe received our remonstrances, and submitted 
in almost unbroken silence to all the wrongs that the United 
States chose to inflict on its commerce. While every energy 
of our country was evoked in the struggle for maintaining its 
existence, the neutral nations of Europe pursued a policy 
which, nominally impartial, was practically most favorable to 
our enemies and most detrimental to us. 

The exercise of the neutral right of refusing entry into 
their ports to prizes taken by both belligerents was especially 
hurtful to us. It was sternly enforced. 

The assertion of the neutral right of commerce with a bel- 
ligerent whose ports were not blockaded by fleets sufficient 
really to prevent access to them, would have been eminently 
beneficial to the Confederate States, and only thus hurtful to 
the United States. It was complaisantly abandoned. 

The duty of neutral states to receive with cordiality and 
recognize with respect any new confederation that indepen- 



320 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

dent states might see fit to form was too clear to admit of de- 
nial but its postponement was equally beneficial to the United 
States and detrimental to the Confederacy. It was post- 

^°"we did not complain that European nations declared their 
neutrality ; but we did complain that the declared neutrality 
was delusive, not real ; that recognized neutral rights were 
alternately asserted and waived in such a manner as to bear 
with great severity on us, while conferring signal advantages 
on our enemy. Many proofs were given of the friendly spirit 
of the British Government to the enemy. 

The partiality of that Government in favor of our enemies 
was further evinced in the marked difference in its conduct on 
the subject of the purchase of supplies by the two belligerents. 
The difference was conspicuous from the very commencement 
of the war. As early as May i, 1861, the British Minister in 
Washington was informed by the Federal Secretary of State 
that he had sent agents to England, and that others would go 
to France to purchase arms; and this fact was communicated 
to the British Foreign Office, which interposed no objection. 
Yet in October of the same year. Earl Russell entertained 
the complaint of the United States Minister in London that 
the Confederate States were importing contraband of war 
from the Island of Nassau, directed inquiry to be made, and 
obtained a report from the authorities of Nassau denying the 
allegations, which report was enclosed to Mr. Adams and re- 
ceived by him as satisfactory evidence to dissipate " the sus- 
picion thrown upon the authorities by that unwarrantable 

act " 

So too when the Confederate Government purchased in 
Great' Britain, as a neutral country (with strict observance 
both of the laws of nations and of the municipal law of Great 
Britain), vessels which were armed and commissioned as ves- 
sels of war after they had been removed from English waters, 
the British Government, in violation of its own laws, and in 
deference to the importunate demands of the United States, 
made an ineffectual attempt to seize one vessel, and actually 
did seize and detain another which touched at the island of 
Nassau on her way to a Confederate port, and subjected her 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 321 

to an unfounded prosecution, at the very time when cargoes 
of munitions of war were openly shipped from British ports 
to New York, to be used in warfare against us. Further in- 
stances need not be adduced to show how detrimental to us. 
and advantageous to our enemy was the manner in which 
England observed its hollow pretension of neutrality toward 
the belligerents. 



323 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST. 

Operations in the West now claim attention. General 
Bragg occupied Chattanooga ; General E. K. Smith held 
Knoxville, in East Tennessee. In August, 1862, he entered 
Kentucky, and after several small and successful affairs reached 
Richmond on August 30th, routing a force of the enemy that 
had collected there to check his progress. The enemy lost 
several hundred killed and several thousand prisoners, with a 
large number of small arms, artillery, and wagons. He then 
advanced on Lexington and Frankfort, and occupied both, 
creating great alarm for the safety of Cincinnati, which he 
could have captured had his command been an indepen- 
dent one. As he was but the advance of General Bragg's 
command, his duty was to co-operate with it, and therefore 
he could not cross the Ohio. 

General Bragg marched from Chattanooga on September 
5th without serious opposition, entered Kentucky by the 
eastern route, compelling General Buell to collect all his 
forces and retreat rapidly to Louisville, and thus restoring 
to the Confederacy a large and important territory. By this 
brilliant piece of strategy, North Alabama and Middle Ten- 
nessee were relieved from the presence of the enemy without 
necessitating a single engagement. 

On September i8th General Bragg issued an address to 
the people of Kentucky. Some recruits joined him, and an 
immense amount of supplies was obtained. As soon as our 
army began to retire, the enemy, having received reinforce- 
ments, moved out, and pressed so heavily on our rear, under 
Hardee, that he halted and checked them near Perryville. 
Bragg then determined to give battle there. Three of the 
divisions of his old command were concentrated under Gen- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 323 

eral Volk, who was ordered to attack on the morning of Oc- 
tober 8th. The two armies were formed on opposite sides of 
the town. The enemy was assailed vigorously, the engage- 
ment soon became general, and was continued furiously until 
dark. Although greatly outnumbered, and although the bat- 
tle waged with varying success, our men eventually carried 
every position, and drove the Federals about two miles. 
Night ended the action. We captured 15 pieces of artillery, 
killed one and wounded two brigadier-generals, and a very 
large number of inferior officers and men, estimated at no less 
than 4,000, and captured 400 prisoners. Our loss was 2,500 
killed, wounded, and missing. 

The enemy was heavily reinforced during the night. 
Next morning, therefore. General Bragg withdrew his troops 
to Harrodsburg. General Smith, with most of his forces, ar- 
rived next day, and the whole were then withdrawn to Bry- 
antsville, the enemy following slowly and not closely. Gen- 
eral Bragg finally took position at Murfreesboro, and the 
enemy concentrated at Nashville, General Buell having been 
superseded by General Rosecrans. 

Meanwhile, on November 30th, General Morgan, with 
1,300 men, made an attack on a brigade of the enemy at 
Hartsville. It was found strongly posted on a hill, in line of 
battle. Our line was formed under fire, and the advance was 
made with great steadiness. The enemy was driven from his 
position, losing a battery of Parrott guns. Finally, hemmed 
in on the river bank, he surrendered. The contest was severe, 
and lasted an hour and a half. The prisoners numbered 
2,100. 

Late in the month of December General Rosecrans com- 
menced his advance from Nashville upon the position of 
General Bragg at Murfreesboro. His movement began on 
December 26th, by various routes, but such was the activity 
of our cavalry as to delay him four days in reaching the 
battle-field, a distance of twenty-six miles. On the 29th 
General Wheeler, with his cavalry brigade, gained the rear of 
Rosecrans's army, and destroyed several hundreds of wagons 
loaded with supplies and baggage. After clearing the road, 
he made the circuit of the enemy and joined our left. Their 



324 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

strength was 65,000 men. The number of fighting men we 
had on the field on December 31st was 35,000, of which 30,000 
were infantry and artillery. 

Our line was formed about two miles from Murfreesboro, 
and stretched transversely across Stone River, which was ford- 
able from the Lebanon pike, on the right, to the Franklin road, 
on the left. As Rosecrans made no demonstration on the 
30th, General Bragg determined to begin the conflict early 
on the next morning by the advance of his left. The enemy 
was taken completely by surprise, and his right was steadily 
driven until his line was thrown entirely back at a right angle 
to his first position and near the railroad, along which he had 
massed reserves. After the first surprise the resistance of the 
enemy was most gallant and obstinate. At night he had 
been forced from every position except the one on his ex- 
treme left, which rested on Stone River, and was strength- 
ened by a concentration of artillery too formidable for as- 
sault. 

Early next morning (January ist, 1863,) the cannonading 
opened on the right centre, and was kept up for a short time. 
The enemy had withdrawn from the advanced position occu- 
pied by his left flank. One or two short contests occurred on 
the 3d, but his line was unchanged. Our forces had now 
been in line of battle five days and nights, with little rest, as 
there were no reserves. Their tents, packed in wagons, were 
four miles in the rear. The rain was continuous, and the cold 
severe. News came that heavy reinforcements were marching 
rapidly to the enemy. General Bragg therefore decided to 
fall back to Tullahoma, which he did in good order. 

In the series of engagements near Murfreesboro we cap- 
tured over 6,000 prisoners, 30 pieces of artillery, 6,000 small- 
arms, a large number of ambulances, horses, and mules, and a 
large amount of other property. Our losses exceeded 10,000. 
Those of the enemy were estimated at over 25,000. 

After the battle of Shiloh, West Tennessee and North 
Mississippi were occupied by a force under General Grant. 
Subsequently this force was increased, and Rosecrans assigned 
to its command. Many positions were held in West Tennes- 
see and North Mississippi, with garrisons aggregating 42,000 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 325 

men. The most important of these positions was the forti- 
fied town of Corinth. 

As part of the plan to subjugate the Southwestern States 
extensive preparations were made for an advance through 
Mississippi, and a combined land and naval attack on Vicks- 
burg. A large number of troops occupied Middle Tennessee 
and North Alabama. To defeat the general plan General 
Bragg moved his army into Kentucky, which by this time 
the Federal Government thought it needless to overawe by 
the presence of garrisons. Van Dorn and Price commanded 
the Confederate troops then in North Mississippi. General 
Bragg, when he advanced into Kentucky, had left them with 
instructions to operate against the Federals in that region, 
and especially to guard against their junction with Buell in 
Middle Tennessee. 

In September, 1862, General Price learned that Rosecrans 
was moving to join Buell. He therefore marched to luka, 
which he reached on the 19th. His advance cavalry found the 
place occupied by a force, which retreated toward Corinth, 
abandoning a considerable amount of stores. On the 24th 
General Price received a letter from General Ord stating that 
*' Lee's army had been destroyed at Antietam ; that therefore 
the rebellion must soon terminate; and that, in order to spare 
the further effusion of blood, he gave him this opportunity to 
lay down his arms." Price replied, thanking Ord for his kind 
feeling, but correcting the rumor about Lee, and promising 
"to lay down his arms whenever Mr. Lincoln should ac- 
knowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy, 
and not sooner." On that night Price held a council of war, 
at which it was agreed to fall back next morning and make 
a junction with Van Dorn, it being now satisfactorily shown 
that the enemy was holding the line on our left instead of 
moving to reinforce Buell. The cavalry pickets had reported 
that a heavy force of the enemy was moving from the south 
toward luka. It proved to be a force commanded by Rose- 
crans in person. General Little advanced to meet him. A 
bloody contest ensued. Rosecrans was driven back with a 
loss of nine guns. Our own loss was very serious. It in- 
cluded General Little, an officer of extraordinary merit, 



326 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

greatly beloved by his troops. The Third Louisiana lost half 
its men, and every regiment suffered severely. It was after- 
ward ascertained that this movement of Rosecrans was in- 
tended to be made in concert with one by Grant moving 
from the west; but Rosecrans had been beaten before Grant 
arrived. 

The Confederate force at this time was 22,000. Rose- 
crans had at Corinth 15,000 men, with 8,000 at various out- 
posts from twelve to fifteen miles distant. In addition to this 
force the enemy had at Memphis, about 6,000; at Bolivar, 
about 8,000 ; at Jackson, Tenn., about 3,000 ; at other points, 
from 2,000 to 3,000, making an aggregate of 42,000 in West 
Tennessee and North Mississippi. 

Corinth, although the strongest, was, from its salient posi- 
tion, the most feasible point to attack, and in the circum- 
stances the most important to gain. Van Dorn, therefore, 
determined to try to take it by surprise. 

Our army moved rapidly from Ripley, its point of juncture, 
cut the railroad between Corinth and Jackson, Tenn., and 
at daybreak on the 3d of October was deployed for attack. 
By ten o'clock our force confronted the enemy inside his 
intrenchments. In half an hour the whole line of outer works 
was carried, the obstructions were passed, and the battle 
opened in earnest. The enemy, obstinately disputing every 
point, was finally driven from his second line of detached 
works, and at sunset had retreated to the innermost lines. 

The battle had been mainly fought by Price's division, on 
our left. The troops had made a quick march of ten miles 
over dusty roads, without water ; the line of battle had been 
formed in forests with undergrowth ; the combats of the day 
had been so severe that General Price thought his troops un- 
equal to further exertion on that day, and it was decided to 
wait until morning. " One hour more of daylight," said Gen- 
eral Van Dorn, " and victory would have soothed our grief 
for the loss of the gallant dead who sleep on that lost but 
not dishonored field." 

During the night batteries were put in position to open on 
the town at daybreak. The action was to begin on the left, 
to be immediately followed by an advance on the extreme 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 327 

right. The order was not executed. The commander of the 
wing which was to make the attack failed to do so, and another 
ofificer was sent to take his place. In the meantime the cen- 
tre became engaged, and the action extended to the left. The 
plan had been disarranged ; nevertheless the centre and left 
pushed forward and planted their colors on the last strong- 
hold of the enemy. " His heavy guns were silenced and all 
seemed about to be ended, when a heavy fire from fresh 
troops that had succeeded in reaching Corinth was poured 
into our thin ranks." With this combined assault on Price's 
exhausted corps, which had sustained the whole conflict, 
those gallant troops were driven back. The day was lost. 
Our army retired to Chewalla during the day, without pur- 
suit, and rested during the night without molestation. Our 
loss both of ofificers and men was very heavy. 

General Van Dorn then moved to near Holly Springs, 
Miss. In the meantime General Grant massed a heavy force, 
estimated at 80,000 men, with which he moved through the 
interior of Mississippi until he encamped near Water Valley. 
The country was teeming with large quantities of breadstuffs 
and forage, and he accumulated an immense depot of supplies 
at Holly Springs, and hastened every preparation necessary 
to continue his advance southward. 

Unless his progress were arrested, the interior of the State, 
its capital, Jackson, Vicksburg, and its railroads would fall 
into his hands. As we had no force sufficient to offer battle, 
our only alternative was to attack his communications. For 
this purpose Van Dorn (December 15th) quietly withdrew our 
cavalry — numbering less than 2,500 men — from the enemy's 
front, and marched for Holly Springs, which was occupied by 
a brigade of infantry and the Seventh Illinois cavalry. Van 
Dorn surprised and captured the garrison, and before eight 
o'clock was in quiet possession of the town. The captured 
property, amounting to millions of dollars, was burned before 
sunset. Grant was thus forced to abandon his campaign, and 
to retreat hastily from the State. 



328 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XLV. 

NAVAL AND MILITARY OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

After the battle of Murfreesboro, which closed in the 
first days of 1863, there was a cessation of active operations in 
that part of Tennessee, and attention was concentrated on the 
extensive preparations in progress for a campaign into Missis- 
sippi, with Vicksburg as the objective point. The plan was 
for a combined movement by land and water, the former 
passing through the interior of the State, to approach Vicks- 
burg in rear, the latter to descend the Mississippi River and 
attack the city in front. 

In the latter part of December, 1862, General Sherman, 
having descended the Mississippi, entered the Yazoo with four 
divisions of land troops and five gunboats, for the purpose 
of reducing our works at Haines's Bluff and turning Vicks- 
burg, so as to attack it in the rear. The first point at 
which the range of hills extending from Vicksburg up the 
Yazoo approaches near to the river is at Haines's Bluff, some 
twenty miles by the course of the Yazoo from the Mississippi 
River. 

On the 27th little progress was made. On the 28th an 
attempt, by one division, to approach the causeway north of 
the Chickasaw Bayou was repulsed with heavy loss. The 
troops were withdrawn and moved down the river to a point 
below the bayou, there to unite with the rest of the command. 
At daybreak on the 29th the attack was resumed, and contin- 
ued throughout most of the day. The enemy was again re- 
pulsed with heavy loss. On the next day there was firing on 
both sides, without conclusive results. On the 31st Sherman 
sent in a flag of truce to bury the dead. Thereafter nothing 
important occurred until the latter part of January, 1863, when 
the troops under General Grant embarked at Memphis and 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 329 

moved down the Mississippi to Young's Point, on the Louis- 
iana shore, a few miles below Vicksburg. 

The expected co-operation of his forces with those of Sher- 
man had been prevented by the brilliant cavalry expedition 
under Van Dorn, which captured and destroyed the vast sup- 
plies collected at Holly Springs for the use of Grant's forces. 
This compelled Grant to retreat to Memphis, and frustrated 
the projected combined movement. A new plan of opera- 
tions was adopted, in which again prominently appears the 
purpose of turning Vicksburg on the north. 

Various attempts to get through to Yazoo above Haines's 
Bluff were made, but signally failed. 

The enemy, after his repeated and disastrous attempts to 
turn the right flank of Vicksburg, applied his attention to the 
opposite direction. General Grant first tried to divert the 
Mississippi from its channel by cutting a canal across the pen- 
insula opposite Vicksburg, so as to make a practicable passage 
for transport vessels from a point above to one below the city. 
His attempt was quite unsuccessful. Another attempt to get 
into the Mississippi without passing the batteries at Vicks- 
burg was by digging a canal to connect the river with the 
bayou in rear of Milliken's Bend, so as to have water com- 
munication byway of Richmond to New Carthage. 

On March 19th the flag-ship of Admiral Farragut, with 
one gunboat from the fleet at New Orleans, passed up the 
river in defiance of our batteries ; but on the 25th four gun- 
boats from the upper fleet attempted to pass down, but were 
repulsed, two of them completely disabled. On April i6th 
a fleet of ironclads, with barges in tow. Admiral Porter com- 
manding, under cover of the night ran the Vicksburg batter- 
ies. One of the vessels was destroyed, and another crippled, 
but towed out of range. On the 26th a fleet of transports 
with loaded barges was floated past Vicksburg. One or more 
of them was sunk, but enough escaped to give the enemy abun- 
dant supplies below Vicksburg, and boats enough for ferri- 
age uses. On April 20th the movement of the enemy com- 
menced through the country on the west side of the river to 
their selected point of crossing below Grand Gulf. On the 
29th the enemy's gunboats came down and took their stations 



330 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

in front of our batteries and rifle-pits at Grand Gulf. A fu- 
rious cannonade was continued for many hours, and the fleet 
withdrew, having one gunboat disabled, but otherwise receiv- 
ing and inflicting little damage. In a short time the fleet re- 
appeared from behind a point which had concealed them from 
view. The gunboats now had their transports lashed to their 
farther side, and, protected by their iron shields, ran by our 
batteries at full speed, losing but one transport on the way. 

On the evening of April 29th the enemy commenced fer- 
rying over troops from the Louisiana to the Mississippi shore, 
to a landing just below the mouth of Bayou Pierre. General 
Green attacked them with his brigade with so much vigor as 
to render their march both cautious and slow. Reinforce- 
ments coming to the enemy. General Green retired, skirmish- 
ing, until joined by Generals Tracy and Baldwin, who had 
made forced marches to reach him. A serious conflict fol- 
lowed, after which, step by step disputing the ground, Green 
retired to the range of hills southwest of Port Gibson, where 
General Bowen joined him, and formed a new line of battle. 
Although the enemy's force was steadily augmented, and out- 
flanked both our right and left, our troops continued most va- 
liantly to resist until their condition became almost hopeless, 
when, by a movement to which desperation gave a power quite 
disproportionate to the numbers, the right wing of the enemy 
was driven back, and our forces made good their retreat over 
Bayou Pierre. The relative forces engaged in the battle of 
May 1st were, as nearly as I have been able to learn, 5,500 Con- 
federates and 20,000 Federals. Fresh troops were reported 
to be joining Grant's army, and one of his corps had been seen 
to cross by a ford above, so as to get in rear of our position. 

To divert notice from this movement to get in the rear of 
Bowen, on the morning of the 2d Grant ordered artillery fire 
to be opened on our intrenchments across Bayou Pierre. 
During the forenoon Bowen sent a flag of truce to ask a sus- 
pension of hostilities for the purpose of burying the dead. 
The request was refused, and a demand made for surrender. 
This was promptly rejected ; but, as the day wore away with- 
out the arrival of reinforcements, Bowen, under cover of night, 
commenced a retreat toward Grand Gulf. General Loring, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



331 



wrrh his division, soon joined him. On the morning of the 
3d Grant commenced a pursuit of the retreating forces, but 
only unimportant skirmishes resulted. 

While these events were happening, Colonel Grierson, 
with three regiments of cavalry, made a raid through the 
northern border of Mississippi, through the interior of the 
State, and joined General Banks at Baton Rouge, La. 
Among the expeditions for pillage and arson this stands 
prominent for savage cruelties against defenceless women and 
children, constituting a record unworthy of a soldier and a 
man. 

Grant, with his large army, was now marching into the 
interior of Mississippi. The country through which he had 
to pass was for some distance composed of abrupt hills, and all 
of it had poor roads. With such difficult communication with 
his base of supplies, and with the physical obstacles to his 
progress, there was reasonable ground to hope that he might 
be advantageously encountered at many points and finally 
defeated. In such warfare as this, that portion of the popula- 
tion who were exempt from or incapable of full service in the 
army could be very effective as an auxiliary force. I therefore 
wrote to Governor Pettus, requesting him to use all practi- 
cable means to get every man and boy, capable of aiding their 
country in its need, to turn out, mounted or on foot, with 
whatever weapons they had, to aid the soldiers in driving the 
invader from our soil. The facilities which the enemy pos- 
sessed in river transportation, and the aid which their iron- 
clad gunboats gave to all operations where land and naval 
forces could be combined, were lost to Grant in this interior 
march which he was making. 

After the retreat of Bowen, General Pemberton, anticipat- 
ing an attack on Vicksburg from the rear, concentrated all the 
troops of his command for its defence. 

All previous demonstrations had indicated that the special 
purpose of the enemy was its capture. Its strategic impor- 
tance justified the belief that he would concentrate his efforts 
upon that object, and this opinion was enforced by the diffi- 
culty of supplying his army in the region into which he was 
marching, and the special advantages of Vicksburg as his 



332 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

base. The superior force of the enemy enabled him, while 
moving the main body of his troops through Louisiana to a 
point below Vicksburg, to send a corps to renew the demon- 
stration against Haines's Bluff. Finding due preparation 
made to resist an attack there, this demonstration was merely 
a feint, but, had Pemberton withdrawn his troops, that feint 
could have been converted into a real attack, and the effort, 
so often foiled, to gain the heights above Vicksburg would 
have become a success. When that corps retired, and pro- 
ceeded to join the rest of Grant's army, which had gone 
toward Grand Gulf, Pemberton commenced energetically to 
prepare for what was now the manifest object of the enemy. 
On the 23d of April, from his headquarters at Jackson, Miss,, 
he directed Major-General Stevenson, commanding at Vicks- 
burg, " that communications, at least for infantry, should be 
made by the shortest practicable route to Grand Gulf." "All 
troops not absolutely necessary to hold the works at Vicks- 
burg should be held as a movable force for either Warrenton 
or Grand Gulf." On the 28th Brigadier-General Bowen, 
commanding at Grand Gulf, reported that " transports and 
barges loaded down with troops are landing at Hard-Times 
on the west bank." At this time the small cavalry force 
remaining in Pemberton's command compelled him to keep 
infantry detachments at many points liable to be attacked by 
raiding parties of the enemy's mounted troops, a circumstance 
seriously interfering with the concentration of the forces of 
his command. Instructions were sent to all the commanders 
of his cavalry detachments to move toward Grand Gulf, to 
harass the enemy in flank and rear, obstructing, as far as 
might be, communications with his base. A despatch was 
sent to General Buckner, commanding at Mobile, asking him 
to protect the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, as Pemberton re- 
quired all the troops he could spare to strengthen General 
Bowen. A despatch was also sent to General J. E. Johnston, 
saying that the Army of Tennessee must be relied on to guard 
the approaches through North Mississippi. To Major-Gen- 
eral Stevenson, at Vicksburg, he sent a despatch : " Hold 
five thousand men in readiness to move to Grand Gulf, and, 
on the requisition of Brigadier-General Bowen, move them ; 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 333 

with your batteries and rifle-pits manned, the city front is 
impregnable." At the same time he telegraphed General 
Bowen : " I have directed General Stevenson to have five 
thousand men ready to move on your requisition, but do not 
make requisition unless absolutely necessary for your posi- 
tion. I am also making arrangements for sending you two or 
three thousand men from this direction in case of necessity." 

The policy was here manifested of meeting the enemy in 
the hills east of his point of debarkation ; yet all unfriendly 
criticism has treated General Pemberton's course on that oc- 
casion as having been voluntarily to withdraw his troops to 
within the intrenchments of Vicksburg. His published re- 
ports show that he made early and consistent efforts to avoid 
that result. 

After General J. E. Johnston had recovered from the 
wound received at Seven Pines, he had been assigned, on the 
24th of November, 1862, to the command of a geographical 
department including the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Georgia, and North Carolina. When the events that 
have been narrated were occurring in Pemberton's command, 
he felt severely the want of cavalry, and much embarrassed 
by the necessity for substituting portions of his infantry to 
supply the deficiency of cavalry. 

Finding it impossible to procure cavalry from General 
Johnston, Pemberton commenced to concentrate all his forces 
for the great effort of checking the invading army. 

Large bodies of troops continued to descend the river, land 
above Vicksburg, and, to avoid our batteries at that place, to 
move on the west side of the river to reinforce General Grant. 
This seemed to justify the conclusion that the main effort in 
the West was to be made by that army; and, supposing that 
General Johnston would be convinced of the fact if he repaired 
to that field in person, as well as to avail ourselves of the pub- 
lic confidence in his military capacity, he was ordered, on May 
9, 1863, to "proceed at once to Mississippi and take chief 
command of the forces." 

When he reached Jackson, hearing that the enemy was be- 
tween that place and the position occupied by General Pem- 
berton's forces, about thirty miles distant, he halted there »'^d 



334 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

opened correspondence with Pemberton, from which a confu- 
sion, with a consequent disaster, resulted, which might have 
been avoided had he, with or without his reinforcements, pro- 
ceeded to Pemberton's headquarters in the field. 

On the same day General Pemberton called a council of 
war of all the general officers present. He then reversed his 
column so as to return to Edward's Depot and take the Browns- 
ville road, and notified General Johnston of the retrograde 
movement and the route to be followed. Just as this move- 
ment began the enemy drove in the cavalry pickets and opened 
an artillery fire. As soon as the demonstration of the enemy 
became serious, orders were issued to form a line of battle, 
with Loring on the right, Bowen in the centre, and Stevenson 
on the left. The line of battle was quickly formed in a po- 
sition naturally strong, and the approaches to the front were 
well covered. After a lively artillery duel for an hour or more 
a large force was thrown against the left, and skirmishing 
became heavy. About ten o'clock the battle began in earnest 
along Stevenson's entire front. Stevenson soon found that 
unless reinforced he would be unable to resist the heavy and 
repeated attacks along his line. Aid was sent to him from 
Bowen, and for a time the tide of battle turned in our favor. 
The enemy still continued to move troops from his left to his 
right, thus increasing on that flank his vastly superior force. 
At 4 P.M. a part of Stevenson's division broke badly and fell 
back. Some assistance finally came from Loring ; but it was 
too late to save the day, and the retreat was ordered. 

Though defeated they were not routed. Stevenson's single 
division for a long time resisted a force described by him as 
more than four times his own. Cockerell, commanding the 
First Missouri division, fought with like fortitude under like 
disadvantage. 

Though some gave way in confusion, and others failed to 
respond when called on, the heroism of the rest shed lustre on 
the field, and " the main body of the troops retired in good or- 
der." The gallant brigades of Green and Cockerell covered 
the rear. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 335 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST VICKSBURG. 

One of the immediate results of the retreat from the Big 
Black was the necessity of abandoning our defences on the 
Yazoo at Snyder's Mills, as that position and the line of the 
Chickasaw Bayou were no longer tenable. All stores that 
could be transported were ordered to be sent into Vicksburg 
rapidly, the rest, including heavy guns, to be destroyed. 
On the morning of the i8th the troops were disposed from 
right to left on the defences. On the entire line 102 pieces 
of artillery of different calibre, principally field-guns, were 
placed in position. Previously instructions had been given 
that all live stock belonging to private parties and likely to 
fall into the hands of the enemy should be driven within our 
lines. Grant's army appeared on the i8th. 

The development of the intrenched line from our extreme 
right was about eight miles, the shortest possible line of which 
the topography of the country admitted. It consisted of a 
system of detached works — redans, lunettes, and redoubts — on 
the prominent and commanding points, with the usual profile 
of raised field-works, connected in most cases with rifle-pits. 
To hold the entire line there were about 18,500 infantry; but 
these could not all be put in the trenches, as it was necessary 
to keep a reserve always ready to reinforce any point heavily 
threatened. 

The campaign against Vicksburg had begun as early as 
November, 1862. General Grant had now, by a circuitous 
march, reached the rear of the city, established a base on the 
Mississippi River a few miles below, had a fleet of gunboats 
on the river, and controlled the navigation of the Yazoo up 
to Haines's Bluff, and was relieved from all danger in regard 
to supplying his army. Pemberton, by wise provision, had 



336 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

endeavored to secure supplies for the duration of an ordinary 
siege, and relied for the co-operation of a relieving army to 
break any investment that might be made. The ability of 
the Federals to send reinforcements was so much greater than 
ours that the necessity for prompt action was fully realized to 
increase as far as possible the relieving army ; therefore, when 
General Johnston, on May 9, 1863, was ordered to proceed 
to Mississippi, he was directed to take from the Army of the 
Tennessee 3,000 good troops, and informed that he would find 
reinforcements from Beauregard. On May 12th he was tele- 
graphed that in addition to 5,000 from Beauregard, already 
sent, 4,000 more would follow, and that it was feared no more 
could be spared. On June ist General Johnston telegraphed 
to me that the troops at his disposal available against Grant 
amounted to 24,100, not including Jackson's cavalry command 
and a few hundred irregular cavalry. On May i8th General 
Pemberton received by courier a communication from General 
Johnston containing these words : 

" If Haines's Bluff is untenable, Vicksburg is of no value 
and cannot be held. If you are invested in Vicksburg, you 
must ultimately surrender. Under these circumstances, in- 
stead of losing both place and troops, we must, if possible, save 
the troops. If it is not too late, evacuate Vicksburg and its 
dependencies, and march to the northeast." 

Pemberton, in his report, remarked : " This meant the fall 
of Port Hudson, the surrender of the Mississippi River, and 
the severance of the Confederacy." 

Confident in his ability, with the preparations that had 
been made, to stand a siege, and firmly relying on the desire 
of the President and of General Johnston to raise it, General 
Pemberton called a council of war, laid Johnston's communica- 
tion before them, and desired their opinion " on the question 
of practicability." The opinion was unanimous that " it was 
impossible to withdraw the army from this position with such 
morale and material as to be of further service to the Confed- 
eracy." He then announced his decision to hold Vicksburg 
as long as possible. 

While the council of war was assembled the guns of the 
enemy opened on the works, and the siege proper commenced. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



ZZ7 



Making meagre allowance for a reserve, it required the 
whole force to be constantly in the trenches, and even when 
they were all on duty they did not furnish one man to the 
yard of the developed line. 

On May 19th two assaults were made on the left and cen- 
tre. Both were repulsed, and heavy loss was inflicted ; our 
loss was small. At the same time the mortar fleet of Admiral 
Porter, from the west side of the peninsula, kept up a bom- 
bardment of the city. 



338 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE DEFENCE OF VICKSBURG. 

ViCKSBURG is built upon hills rising successively from the 
river. The intrenchments were upon ridges beyond the town, 
only approaching the river on the right and left flanks, so 
that the fire of Porter's mortar fleet was mainly effective upon 
private dwellings, and the women, the children, and other non- 
combatants. 

The hills on which the city is built are of a tenacious cal- 
careous clay, and caves were dug in these in which to shelter 
the women and children, many of whom lived in them dur- 
ing the entire siege. From these places of shelter, heroically 
facing the danger of shells incessantly bursting over the 
streets, gentlewomen hourly went forth on the mission of 
humanity to nurse the sick and wounded, and to soothe the 
death-beds of their defenders who were collected in numerous 
hospitals. Without departing from the softer character of 
their sex, it was often remarked that, in discharge of the pious 
duties assumed, they seemed as indifferent to danger as any of 
the soldiers who lined the trenches. 

During May 20th, 21st, and the forenoon of the 22d a heavy 
fire of artillery and musketry was kept up by the besiegers, as 
well as by the mortar- and gun-boats in the river. On the 
afternoon of the 22d preparations were made for a general 
assault. 

The attacking columns were allowed to approach within 
good musket-range, when every available gun was opened with 
grape and canister, and our infantry, " rising in the trenches, 
poured into their ranks volley after volley with so deadly an 
effect that, leaving the ground literally covered with their 
dead and wounded, they (the enemy) precipitately retreated." 
One of our redoubts had been breached by their artillery pre- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 339 

vious to the assault, and a lodgement made in the ditch at 
the foot of the redoubt, on which two colors were planted. 
General Stevenson thus writes of this period of the conflict : 

" The work was constructed in such a manner that the ditch 
was commanded by no part of the line, and the only means by 
which they could be dislodged was to retake the angle by a 
desperate charge, and either kill or compel the surrender of 
the whole party by the use of hand-grenades. A call for vol- 
unteers for this purpose was made, and promptly responded to 
by Lieutenant-Colonel E. W. Pettus, Twelfth Alabama regi- 
ment, and about forty men of Waul's Texas Legion. A more 
gallant feat than this charge has not illustrated our arms dur- 
ing the war. The preparations were quietly and quickly 
made, but the enemy seemed at once to divine our intentions, 
and opened upon the angle a terrible fire of shot, shell, and 
musketry. Undaunted, this little band rushed upon the work, 
and, in less time than is required to describe it, the flags were 
in our possession. Preparations were then quickly made for 
the use of hand-grenades, when the enemy in the ditch, being 
informed of our purpose, immediately surrendered. From 
that time forward the enemy relinquished all idea of assault- 
ing us, and confined himself to the more cautious policy of 
gradual approaches and mining." 

His force was not less than 60,000 men. 

Thus affairs continued until July ist, when General Pem- 
berton thus describes the causes which made capitulation nec- 
essary : 

" It must be remembered that for forty-seven days and 
nights these heroic men had been exposed to burning suns 
and drenching rains, damp fogs and heavy dews, and that dur- 
ing all this period they never had by day or night the slight- 
est relief. The extent of our works required every available 
man in the trenches, and even then in many places they were 
insufficiently manned. It was not in my power to relieve any 
portion of the line for a single hour. Confined to the narrow 
limits of trench, with their limbs cramped and swollen, con- 
stantly exposed to a murderous storm of shot and shell 
. . . is it strange that the men grew weak and attenuated ? 
They had held the place against an enemy five times their 



340 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

number, admirably clothed and fed, and abundantly supplied 
with all the appliances of war. Whenever the foe attempted 
an assault they drove him back discomfited, covered the ground 
with his dead and wounded, and already had they torn from 
his grasp five stands of colors as trophies of their prowess, 
none of which were allowed to fall again into his hands." 

The General became satisfied that the time had come when 
it was necessary either to evacuate the city by cutting his 
way out or to capitulate. It was found that the troops were 
unequal to the fatigues necessary to accomplish a successful 
sortie. 

It was therefore resolved to seek terms of capitulation. 
These were obtained, and the city was surrendered to General 
Grant on July 4th. 

Our loss in killed, wounded, and missing, from the land- 
ing of the enemy on the east to the capitulation, was 5,632 ; 
that of the enemy was 8,875. The number of prisoners sur- 
rendered, as near as we can tell, did not exceed 28,000. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 341 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

SURRENDER OF PORT HUDSON. 

Port Hudson is situated on a bend of the Mississippi 
about twenty-two miles above Baton Rouge, La., and one 
hundred and forty-seven miles above New Orleans. The de- 
fences in front, or on the water side, consisted of three series of 
batteries situated on a bluff and extending northward along 
the river. General Banks with a large force landed on May 
21, 1863, and on the 27th an assault was made on the works, 
and repulsed. A bombardment from the river was then kept 
up for several days, and on June 14th another unsuccessful 
assault was made. This was the last assault ; but the enemy, 
resorting to mines and regular approaches, was slowly progress- 
ing with these when the news of the surrender of Vicksburg 
was received. General Gardner then made a proposal to Gen- 
eral Banks to capitulate, which was accepted, and the position 
was yielded to the Federal commander on the next day (July 9). 

The surrender included about 6,000 persons all told, 51 
pieces of artillery, and a quantity of ordnance stores. Our 
loss in killed and wounded in the assaults was small compared 
with that of the enemy, and by the fall of Vicksburg the po- 
sition of Port Hudson had ceased to have much importance. 
For more than six weeks the garrison, which had resisted a 
vastly superior force, attacking by both land and water, had 
cheerfully encountered danger and fatigue without a murmur, 
had borne famine and repulsed every assault, and they yielded 
Port Hudson only when the fall of Vicksburg had deprived the 
position of its importance. A chivalric foe would have recog- 
nized the gallantry of the defence in the terms usually given 
under like circumstances ; such, for instance, as were granted 
\o Major Anderson in Fort Sumter, or, at the least, have pa- 
roled the garrison. But no such consideration was shown to 
the gallant band by the Federal commander. 



342 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. 

After the battle of Murfreesboro there ensued a period 
of inactivity, interrupted only by occasional expeditions of 
small bodies on each side. Two such expeditions of the en- 
emy — that of Colonel Colburn and that of Colonel Streight — 
were captured, Colburn losing 1,300 men, and Streight 1,700. 
We soon withdrew our forces from Middle Tennessee and 
returned to the occupation of Chattanooga. Buckner held 
Knoxville, and General Samuel Jones had his headquarters 
at Abingdon, Va. Between the two was Cumberland Gap, 
supposed to be the only pass by which an army could march 
from the north to East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia. It 
was therefore partially fortified, and the command assigned to 
General I. W. Frazier, with 1,700 effective infantry and artil- 
lery, and about 600 cavalry. 

About August 20th it was ascertained that Rosecrans, with 
an army of 70,000 men, had crossed the mountains to Steven- 
son and Bridgeport ; Burnside about the same time advanced 
from Kentucky and approached Knoxville, with a force esti- 
mated at 25,000 men. General Buckner therefore evacuated 
Knoxville, and took position at Loudon with about 5,000 men. 
This rendered the occupation of Cumberland Gap hazardous 
and of comparatively little value, and it was surrendered to 
Burnside's vastly superior force on September 9, 1863. 

The movements of Rosecrans made it impossible for us to 
hold Chattanooga, where the main body of our army had been 
encamped. It took position from Lee and Gordon's Mill to 
Lafayette, on the road leading to Chattanooga, and fronting 
the east slope of Lookout Mountain. After various changes 
in the position of our men and the enemy's forces, made 
necessary by the condition of the roads and other causes, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 343 

our trains and supplies were put in a safe position, and all our 
forces were concentrated along the Chickamauga, threatening 
the opposing force in front. General Wheeler with two di- 
visions of cavalry occupied the extreme left, vacated by Hill's 
corps. To divert his attention from the real movement Gen- 
eral Forrest covered the movement on our front and right. 
General B. R. Johnson was moved from Ringgold to the ex- 
treme right of the line; Walker's corps formed on his left, 
opposite Alexander's Bridge ; Buckner's next, near Tedford 
Ford ; Polk opposite Lee and Gordon's Mill ; and Hill on the 
extreme left. Orders were issued to cross the Chickamauga 
at 6 A.M. on September i8th, commencing by the extreme 
right. 

The movement was unexpectedly delayed by the difficulty 
of the road and the resistance of the enemy's cavalry. The 
right column did not effect its crossing until late in the after- 
noon of the 1 8th. At this time General Hood, from the Army 
of Northern Virginia, arrived and assumed command of the 
column. General W. H. T. Walker had a severe skirmish at 
Alexander's Bridge, from which he finally drove the enemy, 
but not before he had destroyed it. General Walker then 
found a ford, and crossed. Hood united with him after night. 
The advance was resumed at daybreak on the 19th, when 
Buckner's corps, with Cheatham's division, crossed the Chick- 
amauga, and our line of battle was formed. Forrest, with his 
cavalry, being in advance to the right, soon became engaged 
with such a large force that two brigades were sent to his 
support. Fighting with unusual tenacity Forrest desperately 
held in check the immense force opposing him. General 
Walker, being ordered to open the attack on the right, boldly 
advanced, and soon encountered opposing forces greatly supe- 
rior to his own. He drove them back handsomely, capturing 
several batteries of artillery by dashing charges. Being re- 
pulsed, however, in his turn by the superior numbers of the 
enemy, Cheatham's division was ordered to his support. It 
came too late. Before it could reach him, assailed on both 
flanks, he was forced back to his first position ; but the two 
commands united, though yet greatly outnumbered, and by a 
spirited attack recovered our advantage. These movements 



344 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

on our right were in such direction as to create an opening be- 
tween the left of Cheatham's division and the right of Hood's. 
To fill this, Stewart's division, the reserve of Buckner's corps, 
was ordered up, and soon became engaged, as did Hood's 
whole front. The enemy had transferred forces from his ex- 
treme right so as to concentrate his main body on his left, 
acutely perceiving the probability of an effort on our part to 
gain his rear and cut off his communications with his base at 
Chattanooga. The main part of the battle, therefore, was 
fought on the opposite flank from that on which both armies 
had probably expected it. General Polk was now directed to 
move the remainder of his corps across the stream, and to as- 
sume command in person. Hill's corps was directed to move 
to our right. Stewart, by a gallant assault, broke the enemy's 
centre, and pushed forward until he became exposed to an en- 
filading fire. Cleburne, immediately on reaching the right, 
closed so impetuously with the enemy as to create surprise, 
and drove him in great disorder. 

Our troops slept upon the field they had so bravely con- 
tested. A part of the forces on our extreme left had not 
reached the field of actual conflict in time to participate in the 
engagement of the day. They, with the remainder of Long- 
street's corps, were brought up and put in position to renew 
the battle in the morning. From prisoners and otherwise the 
commanding general became satisfied that the whole Federal 
force had been fought on the field of Chickamauga. The Con- 
federate troops engaged on the right numbered 33,583 men. 

On the night of the 19th our whole force (including 5,000 
effective infantry sent for temporary service from Virginia) was 
organized as two corps, the right being assigned to General 
Polk, and the left to General Longstreet. The aggregate of 
both wings was 47,321. The forces under Rosecrans numbered 
64,392. On the night before the battle General Bragg gave 
orders that the attack should be commenced at daybreak on 
the right, and be taken up successively to the left. From 
various mishaps the attack did not open until nine or ten 
o'clock in the day, and, what was still more unfortunate, the 
troops from right to left did not engage in the rapid succes- 
sion necessary to have that effectiveness which would have 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 34- 

resulted from concert of action. Partial successes were made 
in the beginning of the battle; but in the first operations the 
troops so frequently moved to the assault without the neces- 
sary cohesion in a charging line that nearly all the early as- 
saults by our right wing were successively repulsed with loss. 
Though at first invariably successful, our troops were subse- 
quently compelled to retire before the heavy reinforcements 
constantly brought up. 

About 4 P.M. a general assault was made by the right, and 
the attack was pressed from right to left until the enemy gave 
way at different points, and finally, about dark, yielded along 
the whole line. Our army bivouacked on the ground it had 
so gallantly won. The foe, though driven from his lines, con- 
tinued to confront us when the action closed. But he with- 
drew in the night, and his main body was soon within his lines 
at Chattanooga. 

We captured over 8,000 prisoners, 5 1 pieces of artillery, 
15,000 stand of small-arms, and quantities of ammunition, with 
wagons, ambulances, teams, medicines, and hospital stores 
in large quantities. The victory was complete. But pride in 
the gallantry of our heroes, rejoicing in the repulse of the in- 
vader, was subdued by the memory of our fallen brave. The 
loss of the enemy in the conflicts at Chattanooga was 757 
killed, 4,529 wounded, and 337 missing — total, 5,616. Our 
loss in killed and wounded was much less than theirs. Gen- 
eral Bragg explained the reason why the enemy was not 
promptly pursued. " Our supplies of all kinds were greatly 
reduced, the railroad having been constantly occupied in trans- 
porting troops, prisoners, and our wounded, and the bridges 
having been destroyed to a point two miles south of Ring- 
gold. These supplies were ordered to be replenished, and as 
soon as it was seen that we could be subsisted, the army was 
moved forward to seize and hold the only communication the 
enemy had with his supplies in the rear. . . . These dis- 
positions, faithfully sustained, insured the enemy's evacuation 
of Chattanooga for want of food and forage. 



34^ A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER L. 

MISSIONARY RIDGE. 

These reverses caused the enemy to send reinforcements 
from the army at Vicksburg, and also to assign General Grant 
to the command in Tennessee. It was on October 23d that 
General Grant arrived at Chattanooga, and then only in time 
to save their army from starvation or evacuation. The in- 
vestment by General Bragg had been so close, and the 
enemy's communications had been so destroyed, that Bragg 
was on the point of realizing the evacuation of Chattanooga 
which he had anticipated. General Grant thus described the 
situation : 

** Up to this period our forces in Chattanooga were prac- 
tically invested, the enemy's lines extending from the Tennes- 
see River, above Chattanooga, to the river at and below the 
point of Lookout Mountain, below Chattanooga, with the 
south bank of the river picketed nearly to Bridgeport, his 
main force being fortified in Chattanooga Valley, at the foot 
of and on JNIissionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, and a 
brigade in Lookout Valley. True, we held possession of the 
country north of the river, but it was from sixty to seventy 
miles over the most impracticable roads to army supplies. 
The artillery horses and mules had become so reduced by 
starvation that they could not be relied upon for moving 
anything. An attempt at retreat must have been with men 
alone, and with only such supplies as they could carry. A 
retreat would have been almost certain annihilation ; for the 
enemy, occupying positions within gunshot of and overlooking 
our very fortifications, would unquestionably have pursued re- 
treating forces. Already more than 10,000 animals had per- 
ished in supplying half rations to the troops by the long and 
tedious route from Stevenson and Bridgeport to Chattanooga 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 347 

over Waldron's Ridge. They could not have been supplied 
another week." 

Grant's first movement was to establish a shorter line of 
supplies. Preliminary operations to this end ensued, during 
one of which we lost the remaining heights held by us west 
of Lookout Creek. Further operations of the enemy were 
delayed until the arrival of Sherman's forces from Memphis. 
After his arrival, on November 23d, an attempt was made to 
feel our lines, and it was done with so much force as to obtain 
possession of Indian Hill and the low range of hills south of 
it. That night Sherman began to move to obtain a position 
just below the mouth of the South Chickamauga ; and by day- 
light on the 24th he had 8,000 men on the south side of the 
Tennessee and fortified in rifle-trenches. By noon pontoon- 
bridges were laid across the Tennessee and Chickamauga, and 
the remainder of his forces crossed. During the afternoon he 
took possession of the whole northern extremity of Mission- 
ary Ridge. On the same day Hooker scaled the western 
slope of Lookout Mountain. On the 25th he took posses- 
sion of the mountain-top with a part of his force, and with 
the remainder crossed Chattanooga Valley to Rossville. Our 
most northern point was assailed by Sherman, and the attack 
kept up all day. He was reinforced by a portion of How- 
ard's corps. In the afternoon the whole of the enemy's cen- 
tre, four divisions, was moved to the attack. They got pos- 
session of the rifle-pits at the foot of Missionary Ridge, and 
began the ascent of the mountain from right to left, and con- 
tinued it until the summit was reached, notwithstanding the 
volleys of grape and canister discharged at them. Our forces 
retreated from the Ridge as the multitudinous assailants 
neared the thin line on the crest, and during the night with- 
drew from the positions on the plain below. General Grant, 
after advancing a short distance from Chattanooga, despatched 
a portion of his forces to the relief of Burnside in East Tennes- 
see, where he was closely besieged by Longstreet in Knox- 
ville. Longstreet moved east into Virginia, and ultimately 
joined General Lee. He had left the army of Lee, and 
moved to the west with his force, on the condition that he 
should return when summoned. This summons had been sent. 



348 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LI. 

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 

In May, 1863, the enemy, under General Hooker, oc- 
cupied his former position before Fredericksburg in great 
strength, the force present being 136,704. His objective 
point was Richmond. 

General Lee's forces had been reorganized into the First, 
Second, and Third Army Corps, commanded respectively by 
Longstreet, Evvell, and A. P. Hill. 

In view of the enemy's great superiority in numbers, it 
was considered inadvisable to allow him to choose his own 
time for attacking us, and it was therefore decided, by a bold 
movement, to attempt to transfer hostilities to the north 
side of the Potomac, by crossing the river into Maryland 
and Pennsylvania; simultaneously driving the foe out of 
the Shenandoah Valley, which he occupied in considerable 
force. 

With this view our forces, on June 3, 1863, advanced to 
Culpeper Court-House, leaving Hill to occupy the lines in 
front of Fredericksburg. 

On the 5th Hooker, having discovered our movement, 
crossed an army corps to the south side of the Rappahannock ; 
but, as this manoeuvre was apparently for observation, it was 
not thought necessary to oppose it. On the 9th a large force 
of the enemy's cavalry crossed at Beverly's and Kelly's Fords 
and attacked General Stuart. A severe engagement ensued. 
Stuart forced his assailant to recross the river, with heavy loss, 
leaving 400 prisoners, 3 pieces of artillery, and several stands 
of colors in our hands. 

On June 13th General Ewell advanced directly upon Win- 
chester, driving the enemy into his works around the town. 
Next day he stormed the works, and the whole army of Gen- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 349 

eral Milroy was captured or put to flight. Most of those who 
attempted to escape were made prisoners. 

General Rhodes captured Martinsburg on the 14th, with 
700 prisoners, 5 pieces of artillery, and a considerable quantity 
of stores. Thus the valley was cleared of the enemy. Our 
loss was small. 

On the night that Ewell appeared at Winchester, the en- 
emy at Fredericksburg recrossed the Rappahannock, and dis- 
appeared behind the hills of Stafford. 

Hooker, in retreating, pursued the roads near the Potomac, 
and offered no favorable opportunity for attack. On the 17th, 
near Aldie, Stuart encountered and drove back the enemy's 
cavalry. The engagement was renewed on the i8th. Find- 
ing that the Federal cavalry was now strongly supported by 
infantry, Stuart retired, having taken in these engagements 
about 400 prisoners and a considerable number of horses and 
arms. 

Meanwhile General Ewell had entered Maryland, and Jen- 
kins, with his cavalry, had penetrated as far as Chambersburg, 
Pa. Longstreet and Hill crossed the Potomac, to be within 
supporting distance of Ewell, and, advancing into Pennsyl- 
vania, encamped near Chambersburg on June 27th. On the 
same day it was ascertained that Hooker had crossed the Po- 
tomac and was marching northward, thus menacing our com- 
munications. It was determined therefore to arrest his further 
progress by concentrating our army at Gettysburg. 

Heth's, the leading division of Hill's corps, met the en- 
emy in front of Gettysburg on the morning of July ist, driv- 
ing him back within a short distance of the town. There the 
advance encountered a larger force, with which two of Hill's 
divisions became engaged. Ewell came up, with two of his 
divisions, and took part in the engagements. The Federals 
were driven through Gettysburg with heavy loss, including 
about 5,000 prisoners and several pieces of artillery. 

Our troops bivouacked on the ground they had won. 

The position at Gettysburg was not the choice of either 
side. South of the town an irregular, interrupted line of hills 
runs, which is sometimes called the " Gettysburg Ridge." 
This ridge, at the town, runs eastward and then southward. 



350 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

At the turn eastward is Cemetery Hill, and at the turn south- 
ward, Gulp's Hill. From Cemetery Hill the line runs south- 
ward about three miles in a well-defined ridge, called Cemetery 
Ridge since the battle, and terminates in a high, rocky, and 
wooded peak named Round-Top, which was the key of the 
enemy's position, as it flanked their line. The less elevated 
position, near where the crest rises into Round-Top, is termed 
Little Round-Top, a rough and bold spur of the former. 
Thus, while Cemetery and Culp's Hills require the formation 
of a line of battle to face northward, the direction of Cemetery 
Ridge requires the line to face westward. The crest has a 
good slope to the rear, while to the west it falls off in a culti- 
vated and undulating valley, which it commands. About a 
mile distant is a parallel crest, known as Seminary Ridge, 
which our forces occupied during the battle. Longstreet, 
with the divisions of Hood and McLaws, faced Round-Top 
and a good part of Cemetery Ridge ; Hill's three divisions 
continued the line from the left of Longstreet, fronting the 
remainder of Cemetery Ridge ; while Ewell with his three 
divisions held a line through the town, and sweeping round 
the base of Cemetery Hill terminated the left in front of 
Culp's Hill. 

These were the positions of the three corps after the arri- 
val of General Longstreet 's troops. 

The main purpose of the movement across the Potomac 
was to free Virginia from the presence of the enemy. It had 
not been intended to fight a general battle at such a distance 
from our base as Gettysburg ; but, being unexpectedly con- 
fronted by the opposing army, it became a matter of difificulty 
to withdraw through the mountains with our large trains. 
At the same time, in the presence of the main army of the 
enemy, the country was unfavorable for collecting supplies. 

Encouraged by the successful issue of the engagement of 
the first day, and in view of the valuable results that would 
ensue from the defeat of the Federal army, General Lee 
decided to renew the attack on the next day, July 2d. 

General Meade held the high ridge above described, along 
which he had moved a large amount of artillery. Ewell held 
our left. Hill the centre, Longstreet the right. In front of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 351 

Longstreet the enemy held a position from which, if he could 
be driven, it was thought that our army could gain Round-Top 
beyond, and thus enable our guns to rake the crest of the 
ridge. Longstreet was ordered to try to carry this position, 
while Ewell should attack the high grounds on the enemy's 
right, which had already been partially fortified. Hill was 
instructed to threaten the centre, to prevent reinforcements to 
either wing, and to avail himself of any opportunity that 
might present itself to attack. 

After a severe struggle, Longstreet succeeded in getting 
possession of the ground in his immediate front and holding 
it. Ewell also carried some of the strong positions he as- 
sailed ; and the result was such as to lead to the belief that 
he would ultimately be able to dislodge the force in his front. 
The battle ceased at dark. 

These partial successes determined Lee to continue the 
assault on the next day, July 3d. Pickett with three brigades 
joined Longstreet next morning, and our batteries were 
moved forward to the positions gained by him on the day 
before. 

In the meantime General Meade had strengthened his 
line with earthworks. The morning was occupied in neces- 
sary preparations, and the battle reopened in the afternoon 
and raged with great violence until sunset. Our troops suc- 
ceeded in entering the advanced works of the enemy; but, our 
artillery having nearly expended its ammunition, the attack- 
ing columns became exposed to the heavy force of the numer- 
ous batteries near the summit of the ridge, and, after a most 
determined and gallant struggle, were compelled to relinquish 
the advantage and fall back to their original positions with 
severe loss. 

Owing to the strength of the enemy's position and the 
exhaustion of our ammunition, a renewal of the engagement 
could not be hazarded, and the difficulty of procuring sup- 
plies rendered it impossible to continue longer where we 
were. Such of the wounded as could be removed were or- 
dered to Williamsport. 

The army remained at Gettysburg during the 4th, and at 
night began to retire by the road to Fairfield, carrying with it 



352 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

about 4,000 prisoners. Nearly 2,000 had been previously 
paroled ; but the numerous wounded who had fallen into our 
hands after the first and second day's engagements were left 
behind. 

Little progress was made that night, owing to a severe 
storm, which greatly embarrassed our movements. The rear 
of the column did not leave its position near Gettysburg until 
after daylight on the 5th. The march was continued during 
the day without interruption by the enemy, except one un- 
important demonstration upon our rear, which was easily 
checked. 

After a tedious march, rendered more dif^cult by the rains, 
our army reached Hagerstown on the 6th and the morning 
of the 7th of July. 

The Potomac was unfordable. It had been swollen by 
the rains that had fallen almost incessantly since our army 
entered Maryland. The pontoon-train sent from Richmond 
was inadequate. By the 1 3th a good bridge was thrown over 
at Falling Waters. On the 12th Meade's army approached. 
An attack was awaited during that and the following day, yet, 
although the two armies were in close proximity, no collision 
occurred, the enemy being occupied in fortifying his own 
lines. 

On the night of the 13th, our preparations being com- 
pleted, the army commenced to cross the Potomac. The 
crossing was not completed until i P.M. on the 14th, when 
the bridge was removed. The enemy ofTered no serious in- 
terruption, and the movement was attended with the loss of 
only a few disabled wagons and two pieces of artillery, which 
the horses were unable to move through the deep mud. 

The strength of our army at Gettysburg is stated at 62,- 
000 of all arms. The report of the Army of the Potomac un- 
der Meade, on June 30th, states the force present at 112,988 
men. General Meade stated to a Congressional Committee 
that, " including all arms of the service, my strength [at 
Gettysburg] was a little under 100,000 men — about 95,000." 

If the strength of Lee's forces, according to the last acces- 
sible report before his movement northward, be compared 
with that made after his return to Virginia, there is a de- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 353 

crease of 19,000 of the brave men who had set the seal of 
invincibility on the Army of Northern Virginia. 

Thus closed the campaign in Pennsylvania. The wisdom 
of the strategy was justified by the result. The battle of 
Gettysburg was unfortunate; though the loss sustained by the 
enemy was greater than our own, theirs could be repaired, 
ours could not. 

The battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of an un- 
usual amount of discussion, and the enemy has made it a 
matter of extraordinary exultation. As an affair of arms it 
was marked by mighty feats of valor to which both combat- 
ants may point with military pride. It was a graceful thing 
in President Lincoln, as reported, when, on being shown the 
steeps which the Northern men persistently held, he answered, 
" I am proud to be the countryman of the men who assailed 
those heights." 

The consequences of the battle have justified the amount 
of attention it has received. It may be regarded as the most 
eventful struggle of the Avar. By it the drooping spirit of the 
North was revived. Had their army been there defeated, those 
having better opportunities to judge than I or anyone who was 
not among them, have believed it would have ended the war. 
On the other hand, a drawn battle, where the Army of North- 
ern Virginia made an attack, impaired the confidence of the 
Southern people so far as to give the malcontents a power to 
represent the government as neglecting for Virginia the safety 
of the more southern States. 

In all free governments the ability of its executive branch 
to prosecute a war must depend largely upon public opinion ; 
in an infant republic this is peculiarly the case. The volume 
given to the voice of disaffection was therefore most seriously 
felt by us. 



354 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LII. 

AFTER GETTYSBURG. 

Shattered, it is true, but not disheartened, the Army of 
Northern Virginia, after recrossing the Potomac, rose, like the 
son of Terra, with renewed vigor, and valor undiminished by 
reverses. 

Early in October General Lee, with two corps, crossed the 
Rapidan to attack the flank of the enemy or compel him to 
retreat. He forced Meade's army back to Alexandria and 
Centreville, and captured 1,500 prisoners. With the excep- 
tion of a rash and ill-conducted affair at Bristoe Station, 
where our advance engaged a corps, and was repulsed, the 
campaign was an unbroken success. Without a general battle 
a large portion of the State was for the time liberated from the 
power of the invader. 

On November 7th the enemy advanced upon our force at 
Kelly's Ford, of the Rappahannock River, effected a crossing, 
and rushing upon two brigades who were at Rappahannock 
Station, defending the bridges, overwhelmed and captured 
most of them, taking between 1,200 and 1,500 men and 4 
pieces of artillery. The movements of the enemy were con- 
cealed by darkness, and his attack was a surprise. 

On November 26th the army under General Meade crossed 
the Rapidan, with the intention of interposing between the 
widely separated wings of his adversary. The movement re- 
sulted in an entire failure. General Meade found Lee's army 
posted behind Mine Run, and ready to receive an attack 
whenever he was disposed to make it. Lee had inaugurated 
that system of breastworks which did him good service in his 
long campaign with Grant. When the troops were halted 
in a wood the men felled the large trees ; heavy logs were 
dragged without loss of time to the prescribed line, where they 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 355 

were piled upon one another in double walls, which were filled 
in rapidly with earth ; so that in a short space of time de- 
fences that would turn a cannon-ball were often constructed. 
In front, for some distance, the felled timber made a kind of 
abatis. 

As General Meade did not attack, General Lee, on the 
night of December ist, determined to assail his adversary on 
the following morning ; but when the dawn broke, his camps 
were seen to be abandoned. 

General Meade had abandoned the campaign and was in 
full retreat. Pursuit was immediately made, but he had too 
much the start, and reached the north side of the Rapidan be- 
fore he could be overtaken. Both armies then returned to 
their original positions. 

We captured about 700 prisoners, 400 mules and horses, 
and destroyed or secured 120 wagons. 



356 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LIII. 

THE SUBJUGATION OF TENNESSEE AND LOUISIANA. 

The saddest pages of a history of the war between the 
States are those that must tell of the subjugation of the State 
Governments by the Federal Government. That the work 
of the fathers of the Republic, that the most magnificent sys- 
tem of constitutional government which the wisdom of man 
has devised, should be turned from its object, changed from 
its order, rendered powerless to protect the individual rights 
and sovereignty of the people, and made the instrument by 
which to establish and maintain imperialism is a revolution 
unlike any other that may be found in the history of man- 
kind. 

The governments of the States were instituted to secure 
certain unalienable rights of the citizens with which they were 
endowed by their Creator. Where must the American citi- 
zen look for the security of these rights ? To his State Gov- 
ernment. 

The powers which a State Government possesses for the 
security of his life, his liberty, his property, his safety, and his 
happiness are " just powers." They have been derived from 
the unconstrained consent of the governed, and they have 
been organized in such form as seems most likely to effect 
these objects. 

The entire order of the State Government is founded on 
the free consent of the governed. From this it springs; from 
this it receives its force and life. It is this consent alone from 
which "just powers" are derived. They can come from no 
other source, and their exercise secures a true republican 
government. All else are usurpations, their exercise is a tyr- 
anny, and their end is the safety and security of the usurper, 
to obtain which the safety and security of the people are sac- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 357 

rificed. The "just powers" thus derived are organized in 
such form as seems most likely to effect safety and happiness. 
It is the governed who determine the form of the govern- 
ment, and not the ruler or his military force, unless he comes 
as a conqueror to make the subjugated do his will. 

What, then, is the Government of the United States ? It 
is an organization of a few years' duration. It might cease to 
exist and yet the States and the people continue prosperous, 
peaceful, and happy. Unlike the governments of the States, 
which find their origin deep in the nature of man, it sprang 
from certain circumstances which existed in the course of 
human affairs. Unlike the governments of the States and 
of separate nations, which have a divine sanction, it has no 
warrant for its authority but the ratification of the sovereign 
States. Unlike the governments of the States, which were 
instituted to secure generally the unalienable rights of man, 
it has only the enumerated objects, and is restrained from 
passing beyond them by the express reservation of all undele- 
gated functions. It keeps no record of property, and guaran- 
tees to no one the possession of his estate. Marriage it can 
neither confirm nor annul. It is an anomaly among govern- 
ments, and arose out of the articles of agreement made by 
certain friendly States which proposed to form a society of 
States, and invest a common agent with specified functions 
of sovereignty. Its duration was intended to be permanent, 
as it was hoped thus to promote the peaceful ends for which 
it was established ; but to have declared it perpetual would 
have been to deny the right of the people to alter or abolish 
their government when it should cease to answer the ends 
for which it was instituted. 

The objects which its creation was designed to secure to 
the States and their people were of a truly peaceful nature, 
and commended themselves to the approbation of men : 

"To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- 
mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty 
to ourselves and our posterity." * 



Preamble to the Constitution of the United States. 



358 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Mankind must contemplate with horror the fact that an 
organization established for such peaceful and benign ends 
did, within the first century of its existence, lead the assault 
in a civil war that brought nearly four millions of soldiers 
into the field, and destroyed thousands and thousands of mill- 
ions of treasure, trampled the unalienable rights of the peo- 
ple under foot, subverted the governments of the States, and 
ended by establishing itself as supreme and sovereign over all. 

Now let us proceed to notice the acts of the Federal Gov- 
ernment which subjugated the State Governments. In the 
case of Tennessee, already noted, the Government of the 
State — which derived its powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned, so that they were "just powers" — found, in the dis- 
charge of its duty to protect the institutions of its people, 
that there were no means by which it could fulfil that duty 
but by a withdrawal from the Union, so as to be rid of the 
Government of the United States, and thus escape the threat- 
ened dangers of usurpation and sectional hostility. It there- 
fore resolved to withdraw from the Union, and the people 
gave their assent to that resolution; so that the State no 
longer considered itself a member of the Union, nor recog- 
nized the laws and authority of its Government. 

The Government of the United States then, with a pow- 
erful military force, planted itself at Nashville, the State 
capital. It refused to recognize the laws and authority of its 
Government, or any organization under it, as having any ex- 
istence, or to recognize the people otherwise than as a hostile 
community. It said to them, in effect, " I am the sovereign, 
and you are the subjects. If you are stronger than I am, 
then drive me out of the State ; if I am stronger than you are, 
then I command an unconditioned surrender to my sover- 
eignty." It is evident that the Government of the United 
States was not there by the consent of those who were to be 
governed. It had not, therefore, any "just powers" of gov- 
ernment within the State of Tennessee. " For," says the 
Declaration of Independence of our fathers, "governments 
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." 
By this action, therefore, the Federal Government not only 
subverted the State Government, but annihilated it. It pro- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 359 

ceeded to establish a new order of affairs, founded on the 
assumption of Federal sovereignty. It appointed its military 
governor to be the head of the new order, and recognized no 
civil or political existence in any man except some of its no- 
torious adherents, until, by betraying the State, he had taken 
an oath of allegiance to the sovereignty of the United States. 
Then unalienable rights were systematically denied, free- 
dom of speech was suppressed, freedom of the press was sus- 
pended, personal liberty was destroyed. Citizens were ar- 
rested, imprisoned, and exiled without the process of law. 

Finally an effort was made to erect a form of State Gov- 
ernment that should be subject and subservient to the Fed- 
eral Government. No one was allowed to vote until he had 
taken an oath to support and defend the Government of the 
United States. Under the State Government manhood and 
residence were deemed sufficient qualifications. The right to 
cast a ballot, therefore, no longer was granted as an unalien- 
able right, but rested upon the permission of the Federal 
Government. A little later a similar oath, with additional 
conditions, was required before a man was permitted to vote 
for a State Constitutional Convention or for delegates to it. 
These conditions were that he should faithfully support all 
acts of Congress and all proclamations of the President of the 
United States, passed or made during the rebellion, with ref- 
erence to slaves. These conditions, sustained by militar}' 
force, were exacted by the Federal Government as the lord 
paramount — as the sovereign within the State. 

Thus the Government of the State of Tennessee was sub- 
verted and overthrown, and the people were subjugated. The 
approval by Tennessee, under such circumstances, of Article 
XIII., as an amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States, prohibiting the institution of slavery, was of no force ; 
for consent given by a party under constraint has neither 
legal nor moral validity. The State Constitution, which was 
amended to meet the demands of the Federal Government, 
was so altered by a so-called Convention of delegates elected 
by a handful only of the people of Tennessee. Admitting 
even that those who voted for the amended Constitution were 
the only legal voters in the State, the Government of the 



360 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

United States was no less an unlawful intruder and usurper 
when it prescribed the amendments of the Constitution and 
designated the voters. Nevertheless, the work was recog- 
nized by it as constituting a republican State Government 
under the Constitution. 

One of the earliest steps in the subversion of the State 
Government of Louisiana, after the occupation of New Or- 
leans, was to make a registration of voters. The Federal 
Government was in possession by military force, and the object 
was to secure its permanent supremacy. Therefore every 
applicant for registration was required to take an oath that he 
Avas *' loyal to the Government of the United States." It was 
announced that any person swearing falsely to any material 
part of the oath would be deemed guilty of perjury and liable 
to its penalties. The effect of this measure was to secure the 
registration of such persons only who would maintain the su- 
premacy of the Federal Government. A proclamation was 
next issued by the commander of the United States forces for 
an election of State officers under the Federal laws and Con- 
stitution. It was declared that these officers, when thus 
elected, would constitute the civil government of the State 
under the Constitution and laws of Louisiana, " except so 
much of the said Constitution and laws as recognize, regulate, 
or relate to slavery." 

The effect of these acts was to establish as the only quali- 
fied voters in the State a number of persons pledged to support 
the Federal Government, and to elect by their ballots so-called 
State officers, and delegates to a so-called Constitutional 
Convention. But this was a work that could be rightfully 
done only by the sovereign people acting through their law- 
ful State Government. It was not so done because the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, with a powerful military force, 
had taken possession of New Orleans, refused to recognize 
the officers of the State Government, and sought to capture 
and imprison them, although it professed to recognize the 
validity of the State Constitution and commanded these 
things to be done as if it was the ultimate sovereign over all. 

Then the Government of the State was subverted, the 
Constitution of the State in part set aside, and the sovereignty 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 361 

of the people trampled down by a power that had no rightful 
authority for such acts. 

Subsequently a so-called Convention was held, a so-called 
new Constitution adopted, complying with the views of the 
Federal Government ; the amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States was adopted, the State representatives were 
admitted to seats in Congress, and the people submitted to 
the fraud vvhich they had not the power to correct. 



362 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LIV. 

THE SUBJUGATION OF MARYLAND. 

It has already been shown how the State Government of 
Maryland was subjugated and her sovereignty ignored by the 
action of the Federal Executive. A Federal military force 
occupied Baltimore at a time when no invasion of the State 
was threatened, and when there had been no application of 
the Legislature or of the Executive for protection against do- 
mestic violence — circumstances which alone could have given 
constitutional authority for the occupation by this organized 
military force. Soon the commanding General, Schenck, is- 
sued an order declaring the establishment of martial law in 
the city and county of Baltimore, and in all the counties of 
the Western Shore of Maryland. All the State civil courts 
were to continue in the discharge of their duties as in times 
of peace, " only in no way interfering with the exercise of the 
predominant power assumed and asserted by the military au- 
thority." There was no constitutional warrant whatever for 
this usurpation of power. 

A further subversion of the State Government was now 
commenced by an invasion and denial of some of the unal- 
ienable rights of the citizens for the security of which that 
Government was instituted. Immediately upon the issue 
of the order of the commanding general, the arrest of citi- 
zens by provost-marshals commenced. The family residence 
of a lady was broken open ; she was seized, put on board a 
steamer, and sent to the Confederate States. A man was ar- 
rested for being "disloyal" to the United States Government, 
and held for examination. Another was charged with inter- 
fering with the enrolment ; he was held for further examina- 
tion. Another, charged with being " disloyal " to the United 
States Government, took the oath of allegiance and was re- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 363 

leased. Another, charged with having given improper infor- 
mation to enrolling officers, was released on furnishing the in- 
formation. Another, charged with having powder in his 
possession, was released on taking the oath of allegiance. 
Another, charged with rendering assistance to wounded Con- 
federate soldiers and expressing treasonable sentiments, took 
the oath of allegiance and was released. Another, charged 
with being a soldier in the Confederate army and paroled, 
was ordered to be sent across the line. Another citizen, 
charged with " treasonable language," was ordered to be sent 
across the line. Two men, charged with cheering for Jefferson 
Davis, took the oath and were released. These are a few 
instances of illegal arrests and punishments, out of hundreds 
that occurred. During the month of July 361 persons were 
arrested by the military authorities, on charges similar to 
those just noted. Of this number 317 took the oath of al- 
legiance to the Government ; 5 were sent to Fort McMenry, 
3 to Washington for the action of the authorities, 1 1 to the 
North, 6 across the lines ; and 19 were held for further ex- 
amination. 

On September 11, 1863, one of the Baltimore City papers 
published a poem called " The Southern Cross." The editor 
and publisher were arrested and sent across the lines, with the 
understanding that they should not return during the war. 
On July 2d an order was issued forbidding the citizens of 
Baltimore to keep arms unless they were enrolled as volun- 
teer companies. A Massachusetts regiment, placed at the dis- 
posal of the provost-marshal and chief of police, was formed 
into squads of three and four, which were soon diligently en- 
gaged in searching houses. Large wagons were provided, and 
muskets, carbines, rifles, revolvers, sabres, bayonets, swords, 
and bird or ducking guns in considerable quantities were 
gathered. The Constitution of the United States says : 

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not 
be infringed," 

A still further subversion of the State Government of 
Maryland was made by a direct interference with the elec- 
tions. On November 3, 1863, an election was to be held in 
the State for members of the Legislature and members of 



364 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Congress. On October 27th the commanding General issued 
an order to all marshals and military officers to cause their 
direct interference with the voters. Governor Bradford ap- 
pealed to President Lincoln to revoke the order, and protested 
against any person who offered to vote being put to any test 
not found in the laws of Maryland. President Lincoln re- 
fused the request. 

" On Monday evening preceding the election," said Gov- 
ernor Bradford, " I issued a proclamation giving the judges of 
election the assurance of the protection of the State to the 
extent of its ability. Before the following morning orders 
were sent to the Eastern Shore directing its circulation to be 
stopped ; the public papers were forbidden to publish it. An 
embargo was laid on all steamers in port trading with that 
part of the State, lest they might carry it. On the day pre- 
ceding the election the officer in command of the regiment 
which had been distributed among the counties of the East- 
ern Shore commenced his operations by sending across the 
Bay some ten or more of the most estimable and distin- 
guished of its citizens, including several of the most steadfast 
and most uncompromising loyalists of the Shore. The jail 
of the county was entered, the jailer seized, imprisoned, and 
afterward sent to Baltimore, and prisoners confined therein 
under indictment set at liberty. The commanding officer 
issued a proclamation in which he invited all the truly loyal 
to avail themselves of that opportunity, and establish their 
loyalty * by giving a full and ardent support to the Union 
League Convention ; ' declaring that * none other is recog- 
nized by the Federal authorities as loyal or worthy of the 
support of anyone who desires the peace and restoration of 
the Union.' 

" The Government ticket was in several, if not all, of 
those counties designated by its color. It was a yellow 
ticket ; and armed with that a voter could safely run the 
gauntlet of the sabres and carbines that guarded the entrance 
to the polls, and known sympathizers with the rebellion were 
allowed to vote unquestioned if they would vote that ticket ; 
while loyal and respected citizens ready to take the oath were 
turned back by the officer in charge, without even allowing 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 365 

them to approach the polls. In one district the military offi- 
cer took his stand at the polls before they were opened, de- 
claring that none but the 'yellow ticket should be voted,' and 
excluded all others throughout the day. In another district 
a similar officer caused every ballot offered to be examined, 
and unless it was the favored one the voter was required to 
take the oath, and not otherwise. In another district, after one 
vote only had been given, the polls were closed, the judges 
were all arrested and sent out of the county, and military oc- 
cupation taken of the town." 

The result was the election of a majority of members of 
the Legislature in favor of a State Constitutional Convention. 
The acts necessary for the purpose were passed. At the elec- 
tion of delegates the military authority again interfered in 
order to secure a majority in favor of immediate and uncon- 
ditional emancipation. The so-called Convention assembled 
and drafted a so-called Constitution, which prohibited the 
existence of slavery in the State. 

Notwithstanding the aid of the President, which was 
asked and obtained to help on the ratification of the new 
Constitution ; notwithstanding the soldiers' vote, a most 
stringent oath, and the exclusion of every person who had in 
any manner, by word or act, aided the cause of the Confeder- 
acy, the majority for the so-called Constitution was only 375. 
The total vote was 59,973. In i860 the vote of the State was 
92,502. 

Thus was the State Government of Maryland subjugated 
and made an instrument of destruction to the people; thus 
were their rights ruthlessly violated, and property, millions of 
dollars in value, annihilated. 



366 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LV. 

THE SUBJUGATION OF KENTUCKY. 

In Kentucky the first open and direct measures taken by 
the Federal Government for the subjugation of the State 
Government and people, thereby to effect the emancipation 
of the slaves, consisted in an interference with the voters at 
the State election in August, 1863. A military force was sta- 
tioned at the polls to sustain and enforce the action of some 
of the servants of the Government of the United States, in 
order to overawe the judges of election, secure the administra- 
tion of a rigid oath of allegiance, and thereby the rejection of 
as many opposition votes as possible. It was intended that 
none but the so-called " Union men " should vote — that is, 
men who were willing to approve of every measure which the 
Government of the United States might adopt to carry on 
the war and revolutionize the State. No man was allowed to 
be a candidate or to receive any votes unless he was a well- 
known advocate of the Government of the United States. 
These measures excluded the largest portion of the former 
Democratic party, although they might be practically " Union 
men," and placed everything in the hands of the Administra- 
tion party, where, by the use of similar machinery, it remained 
a great many years after the war closed. 

Meanwhile, on July 31, 1863, the commanding General of 
the Department of the Ohio issued an order declaring the 
State under martial law, and said, " It is for the purpose only 
of protecting, if necessary, the rights of loyal citizens and the 
freedom of elections." The General in command in the 
western part of the State issued an order to regulate the 
election in that quarter, and the colonels at every post did 
likewise. In Louisville, on the day of election, there were ten 
soldiers at each voting-place, who, with crossed bayonets, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 367 

stood at the doors, preventing all access of voters to the polls 
but by their permission, and who arrested and carried to the 
military prison all whom they were told to arrest. Out of 
some 8,000 votes in the city, less than 5,000 were taken. The 
interpretation generally put on the order of the commanding 
officer by the opposition party was that no man was to have 
the privilege of having his right to vote tested by the judges 
of election if he was pointed out to the guard by any one of 
the detectives as a proper person to be arrested. As the com- 
manding of^cer had not the semblance of legal or rightful 
power to interfere with the election, the most sinister suspi- 
cions were naturally aroused, and very many were said to have 
been detained from going to the polls through fear that they 
might be made the victims of personal or party malice. Sim- 
ilar intimidation was practised in other parts of the State. The 
result was that there was not only direct military interference 
with the election, but it was conducted in most of the State 
under the intimidation of the bayonets of the Government of 
the United States. The total vote was 85,695. In i860 the 
vote of the State was 146,216. 

The Federal Government was now ready to move forward 
in its design to destroy one of the most valuable institutions 
of the State. Steps were taken by its officers to enroll all the 
able-bodied male negroes in the State between the ages of 
twenty and forty-five years, that they might form a part of its 
forces. The effect of this measure was to break up the labor 
system of the State ; and meanwhile the pseudo-philanthro- 
pists furnished food for powder, and indulged their ideas of 
freedom at their neighbors' expense. The excitement pro- 
duced caused the Governor to visit Washington and effect 
agreements by which all recruiting should cease when a coun- 
ty's quota was full, all recruits should be removed from the 
State, and other similar provisions. A year later he said to 
the Legislature: "Had these agreements been carried out, a 
very different state of feeling would have existed in Ken- 
tucky. But, instead of carrying them out, the most offensive 
and ingenious modes were adopted to violate them. 

The next step taken by the Federal Government in this 
work of subversion was the destruction of the unalienable 



368 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

right of personal liberty of the citizen, which the State was in 
duty bound to protect. The Union Governor of Kentucky, 
whose election was aided by the military force, bears witness 
to the Federal usurpations in his message to the Legislature of 
January, 1865. He complains of the outrage committed by the 
military in " the arrest, imprisonment, and banishment of loyal 
citizens without a hearing, and even without a knowledge of 
the charges against them. There have been a number of this 
class of arrests, merely for partisan political vengeance, and to 
force them to pay heavy sums to purchase their liberation." He 
proves his accusation by citing the cases of General Huston, 
Colonel Wolford, and Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs, whose 
"acts are part of the glorious history of loyal heroism." 

Next came the proclamation of martial law throughout 
the State, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. A 
large number of eminent Kentuckians, of all professions and 
pursuits, were arrested and imprisoned. A group of persons, 
consisting of judges, magistrates, wealthy merchants, and young 
women, were banished from the State without having been 
allowed a hearing or trial, or any opportunity to vindicate 
themselves. The State Government was passive; indeed, it 
was powerless to resist. A State election was held on the first 
Monday of August for local oflficers and a Judge of the High 
Court of Appeals from one district. Chief-Justice Duvall 
was one of the two candidates. On July 29th an order was 
issued by the Major-General, commanding, to the sheriffs of 
the counties concerned, as follows : 

" You will not allow the name of Alvin Duvall to appear 
upon the poll-books as a candidate for ofifice at the coming 
election." 

Another name was substituted. 

The Presidential election occurred in November, but as 
the vote of Kentucky was not regarded as necessary to insure 
Republican success, the Federal Government refrained from 
interference. 

By enlistment over 22,000 of the most valuable slaves in 
the State had gone into the service of the United States. On 
March 3, 1865, Congress passed an act declaring that the 
wives and children of all such soldiers should be free. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 369 



CHAPTER LVI. 

THE SUBJUGATION OF MISSOURI. 

The subjugation of the State Government of Missouri by 
the Federal Government was more rapid and more desperate 
than in the case of Kentucky. But the bravery of the Govern- 
or and the determination of the Legislature caused the Gov- 
ernment of the United States to depart from its usually 
stealthy progress in the invasion of the State Government and 
the sovereignty of the people, and to adopt bolder measures. 
For his attempt faithfully to discharge his duties the Gov- 
ernor was charged with purposes of treason and secession. 
Troops were poured into the State so rapidly as to render the 
successful operation of the lawful authorities impossible, and 
the control of a large portion of the State was soon held by 
the military forces. Unable to resist these usurpations the 
Governor retired to the southern part of the State. 

Meanwhile the State Convention reassembled at the call 
of its committee. Entirely forgetful of the object for which 
the people had called it together, it proceeded to declare the 
State offices vacant and to elect a provisional Governor and 
other officers entirely subservient to the will and interests of 
the administration at Washington. The commanding Gen- 
eral now declared martial law in the State, and the emancipa- 
tion of all slaves belonging to persons who had taken active 
part with us. This proclamation was modified by the Presi- 
dent as in advance of the times. 

The attention of the reader is called to the numerous usur- 
pations and violations of constitutional principles and laws 
thus rapidly voted, many invasions with military force, the 
expulsion of the lawful State Government, the assumption by 
the State Convention of unlawful powers, the election and 
introduction of persons into offices not vacant, the declaration 
24 



370 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

of martial law without any authority for it, and the attempt 
to emancipate the slaves in violation of every law and consti- 
tutional principle. 

The severity of the Federal Executive now began to be 
felt by the citizens of the State, All disaffected persons were 
silenced or arrested, prisoners of war were treated as criminals, 
and every obstacle to complete subjugation to the will of the 
conqueror was sought to be removed. The State Government 
was represented by a prominent Governor ; and a State Con- 
vention, which adjourned its sessions from year to year, after 
dallying periodically with the subject of the emancipation of 
the slaves, finally passed an ordinance for that purpose, to take 
effect in 1870. This was not immediate emancipation ; so the 
disturbances were kept up in the State until, at a session of 
the Legislature, in February, 1864, a bill was passed for a so- 
called State Convention to revise the State Constitution, and 
the election of delegates in November. The delegates were 
elected, the so-called Convention assembled January 6, 1865, 
an immediate emancipation ordinance was passed, and the 
State organization was subjugated to do the will of the usurper 
and to disregard the will of the sovereign people. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 371 



CHAPTER LVII. 

THE SUBJUGATION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 

Now follows the humiliating spectacle of the subjugation 
of the State Government of New York, where, with all her 
men and treasures, it might have been supposed that some 
stanch defenders of constitutional liberty would have sprung 
up. On the contrary, under the pretext of " preserving the 
Union " her deluded children aided to destroy the Constitution 
on which the Union was founded, and to put forth all their 
strength to exalt the Government of the United States to 
supremacy. Thus the States were brought to a condition of 
subjugation, and their governments subverted from the pro- 
tection of the rights for which they were instituted. These 
unalienable rights of the people were left without a protector 
or shield against the cunning hand of the usurper ; the sover- 
eignty of the people was set aside, and in its place arose the 
sovereignty of the Government of the United States. 

To show how the laws were disregarded, and how despoti- 
cally the personal liberty of the citizen was invaded, let this ex- 
ample bear witness : The Secretary of State at Washington, 
William H. Seward, a favorite son of New York, would "ring 
a little bell," which brought to him a messenger, to whom was 
given a secret order to arrest and confine in Fort Lafayette a 
person designated. The order was sent by telegraph to the 
United States Marshal of the district in which would be 
found the person to be arrested. The arrest being forcibly 
made by the marshal, with armed attendants, without even 
the form of a warrant, the prisoner, without the knowledge 
of any charge against him, was conveyed to Fort Hamilton 
and turned over to the commandant. 

An aid, with a guard of soldiers, then conveyed him in a 
boat to Fort Lafayette, and delivered him to the keeper in 



^y2 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

charge, who gave a receipt for the prisoner. He was then di- 
vested of the weapons, money, valuables, or papers in his pos- 
session. His baggage was opened and searched. A soldier 
then took him in charge to the designated quarter, which was 
a portion of one of the casemates for guns, lighted only from 
the port-hole, and occupied by seven or eight other prisoners. 
All were subjected to prison fare. Some were citizens of New 
York, and others of different States. This manner of impris- 
onment was subsequently put under the direction of the Sec- 
retary of War, and continued at intervals until the close of 
hostilities. 

Between July i and October 19, 1861, Mr. Seward made 
such diligent use of his "little bell "that one hundred and 
seventy-five of the most respectable citizens of the country 
were consigned to imprisonment in this Fort Lafayette, a 
strong fortress in the lower harbor of New York. 

Ample safeguards had been provided in the Constitution 
for the protection of the personal liberty of the citizen, in 
addition to the guarantees afforded by the constitutions of 
the several States.* 

Yet all these safeguards, State and Federal, proved to be 
of no avail to secure and enforce the right of the citizens in 
the hour of trial. 

The writ of habeas corpus was issued by some of the State 
courts directing the officer in command at the fort to bring 
some one or other of the prisoners into court for an investi- 
gation of the cause and authority for his detention. No atten- 
tion was given to any of these writs by the officer. Neither 
did the Governor of the State make any effort to enforce the 
processes of the courts. 

Thus the Constitution, the laws, the courts, the Executive 
of the State of New York were subverted, turned aside from 
the end for which they were instituted, and all the specific 
arrangements were of no avail to secure this guaranteed right 
of its citizens. Probably every one of the prisoners was en- 
tirely innocent of any act whatever that was criminal under 
the laws of either the State or the United States. 

* See Art. I., Sec. 9; Art. V., amendment; Art. VI., amendment. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 373 

Finally, the prison in New York harbor became so full 
that many prisoners were sent to Fort Warren, in Boston 
harbor. At this time the Government of the United States 
used the old Capitol at Washington, Fort McHenry at Balti- 
more, Fort Lafayette at New York, and Fort Warren at Bos- 
ton for the confinement of those whom the usurper designated 
as "state prisoners." Despite the distinct provision in the 
Constitution, these prisoners were refused the assistance of 
counsel, and officially notified that the Government " will 
not recognize anyone as an attorney for political prisoners, 
and will look with distrust upon all applications for release 
through such channels." 

In every Northern State victims of this violence were to 
be found. It was demonstrated in the most decisive man- 
ner that there was no just cause for these invasions of the 
rights of the States. At this time (November 4, 1862) the 
administration party was decisively defeated at the elections. 
On the 22d of November ensuing, the War Department 
issued an order releasing all prisoners except prisoners of 
war. Thus these arrests were for a short period suspended ; 
then they were vigorously renewed. 

Many of the persons thus illegally imprisoned commenced 
suits for damages. Congress then, on March 3, 1863, passed 
an act, giving the defence the power of simply filing a peti- 
tion, verified by affidavit, to remove the case from any State 
court to the Circuit Court, thus terminating the jurisdiction 
of all the courts of the State of New York upon the simple 
word of the defendant accompanied by an affidavit. 

The subjugation of the Government of the State of New 
York was made in another section of the same act, which de- 
clared that the President was authorized, whenever in his 
judgment the public safety might require it, to suspend the 
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout 
the United States, or any part thereof. 

By the Constitution the power to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus is vested in Congress alone, which cannot dele- 
gate the power either of suspension or of determining that the 
public safety requires it. 

On the 15th of September the President issued a procla- 



374 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

mation declaring that, in his judgment, the public safety re- 
quired that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should 
be suspended throughout the United States in cases where, 
by the authority of the President or of the military, naval, or 
civil officers of the United States, or either of them, persons 
were held in custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders 
and abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen en- 
rolled, drafted, or numbered, or enlisted in the land or naval 
forces of the United States, etc. : " Therefore, I do hereby 
proclaim that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is sus- 
pended throughout the United States in the several cases be- 
fore mentioned throughout the duration of said rebellion." 

No autocrat ever issued an edict more destructive of the 
natural right to personal liberty. Not only was the State 
Government of New York deprived of the power to fulfil its 
obligations to protect and preserve this right of its citizens, 
but every State Government of the Northern States was in 
like manner subverted. 

Another step in the subjugation of the Government of the 
State of New York was made by the domination over it of 
the military power of the Government of the United States. 
This took place in a time of peace in the State, when the 
courts were all open and the civil administration of affairs 
was unobstructed. On July 30, 1863, General Dix, com- 
manding General of the Department, addressed a letter to 
Governor Seymour, asking whether the military power of the 
State could be relied on to enforce the execution of the 
" draft " law, in case of forcible resistance, and stating that, if 
the Act would be enforced under the authority of the Gov- 
ernor, he need not ask the War Department to put at his 
disposal, for the purpose, troops in the service of the United 
States. 

Governor Seymour replied, on August 3d, that he had 
addressed a letter to the President, the answer to which he 
believed would release him and the General from the painful 
questions growing out of an armed enforcement of the con- 
scription law in New York. 

On August 8th General Dix again addressed Governor 
Seymour, stating that it was his duty as commanding offi- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 375 

cer, if called on, to aid enrolling officers in resisting forcible 
opposition to the execution of the law; that he wished to see 
the draft enforced by the military power of the State, in case 
of organized resistance ; and that he designed to ask the 
General Government for a force that would be adequate to 
enforce the law and meet any emergency growing out of it. 

Meanwhile Governor Seymour had received no answer 
to his letter to the President, in which he had asked for a 
suspension of the draft on account of errors in estimates, and 
failures to give credit for the past enrolments. He there- 
fore replied to General Dix that he would take care that all 
executive officers of the State should perform their duties 
vigorously and thoroughly, and that, if need be, the military 
power would be called into requisition. 

On August 1 8th General Dix notified the Governor that 
he had applied for a force, and that his call had been prompt- 
ly responded to, and that he would be ready to meet all op- 
position to the draft. The force thus sent to subjugate the 
people amounted to forty-two regiments and two batteries. 
No occasion arose for the exercise of their powers, but the 
wrong to the State of New York was none the less gross. 

Another act soon made manifest the subjugation of the 
Government of the State of New York by the domination of 
the military power of the Government of the United States. 
A spurious proclamation, purporting to have been issued by 
the President, appeared in two New York morning papers— the 
Journal of Commerce and the World — on May 18, 1864. It 
was immediately contradicted by the authorities at Washing- 
ton, and orders were issued under which the offices of these 
papers were entered by armed men, the property of the owners 
was seized, the premises were held by force for several days, 
and the publication was suspended. The operators were 
taken into custody, and the proprietors of the newspapers 
were ordered to be arrested and imprisoned. At the same 
time the office of the independent telegraph line was occu- 
pied by a military force in the name of the Government of 
the United States. 

Governor Seymour immediately instructed the District 
Attorney to proceed against the offenders. An investigation 



376 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

was made by one of the city judges, and warrants were is- 
sued for the arrest of General Dix and several of his officers. 
They voluntarily appeared by counsel. The result of the 
arguments was that the officers were held to await the action 
of the Grand Jury, who, however, took no action on the charges. 
Two or three days after the appearance of the proclamation, 
the guilty person was arrested and imprisoned in Fort Lafay- 
ette, the newspapers and telegraph oflfices were restored to 
their owners, and publication was resumed. But the Govern- 
ment of New York never obtained any indemnification for 
these losses by its citizens. 

Another subversion of the State Government was brought 
about by military interference, on the part of the Govern- 
ment of the United States, with the State election. This 
was in 1864, when President Lincoln and General McClellan 
were the candidates for the Presidency of the United States. 
As usual in all these cases, in order to work up a pretended 
necessity for interference on the part of the United States 
Government, proceedings were commenced by the appearance 
of a grandiloquent proclamation from the commanding Gen- 
eral, telling what horrible designs, there was reason to believe, 
the agents of the Confederate States in Canada had prepared 
to be executed on election day, by an invasion of voters from 
Canada to colonize different points. At the same time the 
State Department issued a despatch saying that information 
had been received from the British Provinces that there was 
a conspiracy to set fire to the principal cities in the Northern 
States on the day of the Presidential election. Thus was 
created an apparent necessity for this military force to be very 
active on the day of election. 

General B. F. Butler was sent to take command in the 
city of New York, 7,000 additional men were placed in the 
forts of the harbor, and proclamations were issued by the 
United States Government threatening the severest punish- 
ment upon everyone who might attempt improperly to vote 
at the election in the State of New York. 

The proposed limits will not permit me to present further 
details of the subjugation of the State Government by the 
Government of the United States. Neither can space be 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. i-j-j 

spared to relate the details of the subjugation of the govern- 
ment of each Northern State. In many the events were sim- 
ilar to those in New York ; in others the circumstances were 
dissimilar ; but in all the sovereignty of the people was en- 
tirely disregarded, and the operation of the institutions which 
had been established for the protection of their rights was 
suspended or nullified by a military force of the Government 
of the United States. 

Only such events can be stated as serve to show how uni- 
versal and how complete was the work done by the United 
States Government to secure a recognition of its supremacy 
over not only the acts but even the words of every citizen. 
All were its subjects : the "loyal," as some were called, were 
its friends ; the " disloyal " were its disaffected subjects, to be 
watched by spies and informers, and, if necessary, to be put in 
prison to secure their passive submission. 

Under the pretext of securing the arrest of deserters from 
the army, a military domination was established in all the 
Northern States. This was accomplished on September 24, 
1862, by the appointment of a Provost-Marshal General of the 
War Department at Washington, and in each State one or 
more special provost-marshals, who were required to report to 
the Provost-Marshal and to receive instructions from him. 

In utter disregard of the principles of civil liberty a 
military control was established in every Northern State, the 
declarations of right in their Constitutions were violated, and 
the authority of their governments was subverted by an abso- 
lute and direct usurpation on the part of the Government of 
the United States. 



3/8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LVIII. 

THE MILITARY COMMISSION AT WASHINGTON. 

During 1865 the country was filled with horror by two 
trials held before a Military Commission in the city of Wash- 
ington. 

The specification charged eight men and one woman with 
conspiracy to murder President Lincoln, Vice-President John- 
son, General Grant, and William H. Seward, Secretary of 
State. The President had been assassinated, and Secretary 
Seward badly wounded with a knife. The sentence of the 
commission was that Harold, Atzerott, Payne, and Mrs. Sur- 
ratt should be hanged by the military authority under the 
direction of the Secretary of War on the 7th of July. The 
others were sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for a 
term of years or for life. With only one day's delay the 
sentences were carried into execution. John H. Surratt, the 
son of Mrs. Surratt, escaped before trial. He was sought for 
by the spies of the War Department half round the world, 
and, after a long time, was found serving as a soldier in the 
corps of Papal Zouaves at Rome. He was brought back to 
Washington, tried, and acquitted. 

The insertion of my name with those of others, honorable 
gentlemen, as "inciting and encouraging" these acts, served 
as an exhibition of the malignant spirit with which justice 
was administered by the authorities in Washington at that 
time. The case of Mrs. Surratt awakened much sympathy. 
Some of the accused had boarded at her house. She was 
spoken of by her counsel, Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, as 
" a devout Christian, ever kind, affectionate, and charitable," 
a testimony which was confirmed by evidence and uncon- 
tradicted. On the day of her execution her affectionate and 
devoted daughter sought to obtain an audience with Presi- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 379 

dent Johnson, to implore, at least, a brief suspension of the 
sentence on her mother. She was obstructed and prevented 
from seeing the President by Ex-Senator Preston King, of 
New York, and Senator James H. Lane, of Kansas, who were 
reported to have been stationed at the Executive Mansion to 
keep guard over President Johnson. Each of these senators 
afterward committed suicide. 

The trial of Major Henry Wirz was the next in impor- 
tance which came before the Military Commission. In April, 
1865, President Johnson issued a proclamation stating that 
from evidence in possession of the " Bureau of Military Jus- 
tice," it appeared that I, Jefferson Davis, was implicated in 
the assassination of President Lincoln, and for that reason 
he offered a reward of one hundred thousand dollars for my 
capture. That testimony was subsequently found to be en- 
tirely false, having been a mere fabrication. Meanwhile cer- 
tain persons of influence and public position at that time, 
either aware of the fabricated character of this testimony, or 
convinced of its insufficiency to secure my conviction at a 
trial, sought to find ample material to supply this deficiency, 
in the great mortality of the soldiers we had captured and 
imprisoned at Andersonville. The military authorities there- 
fore arrested Captain Henry Wirz, a foreigner by birth, poor, 
friendless, and wounded, and held as prisoner of war, as 
he had been included in the surrender of General Johnson. 
Doomed before he was tried, the poor man was denied per- 
mission to be heard according to law. 

Captain Wirz had been in command of the Confederate 
prison at Andersonville. The first charge against him was 
that of conspiring with Jefferson Davis, Secretary Seddon, 
General Howell Cobb, General Winder, and others to cause 
the death of thousands of prisoners through cruelty, etc. The 
second charge was against himself for murder, in violation of 
the laws and customs of war. 

The Military Commission before which he was tried was 
convened by order of President Johnson, and met August 
20th. Wirz pleaded not guilty. The trial lasted three 
months. No evidence whatever was produced to show the 
existence of such a conspiracy as had been charged. Wirz, 



38o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

however, was pronounced guilty, and executed November 
lo, 1865. 

After his death, Mr. Schade, his attorney at the trial, in 
compliance with his client's request, shortly before his execu- 
tion, made a public statement in vindication of his character. 
In this statement Mr. Schade said : 

" On the night previous to the execution of the prisoner 
some parties came to the confessor of Wirz (Rev. Father 
Boyle) and also to me. One of them informed me that a 
high Cabinet officer wishes to assure Wirz that if he would 
implicate Jefferson Davis with the atrocities committed at An- 
dersonville his sentence should be commuted. He requested 
me to inform Wirz of this. In presence of Father Boyle I 
told him next morning what had happened. The Captain 
simply and quietly replied: 'You know that I have always 
told you that I do not know anything about Jefferson Davis. 
He had no connection with me as to what was done at An- 
dersonville. If I knew anything of him, I would not become 
a traitor against him or anybody else to save my life.' " 

Thus ended the attempt to suborn Captain Wirz against 
Jefferson Davis. 

Captain C. B. Winder, who saw Wirz a few days before his 
execution, confirmed the statement of Mr. Schade. He stated 
that Wirz, at the time of the offer made to him, informed him 
that his life should be spared and his liberty restored if he 
would implicate me, directly or indirectly, with the condition 
and treatment of prisoners of war as charged by the Federal 
authorities, and that he had indignantly spurned the propo- 
sitions. 

As to the other evidence alleged to have been held against 
me, it will surely suffice to say that at the session of Congress 
of 1865-66 a committee was appointed by the House of Rep- 
resentatives " to inquire into and report upon the alleged com- 
plicity of Jefferson Davis with the assassination of the late 
President Lincoln," or words to that effect. George S. Bout- 
well was the chairman, and the majority of the members were 
extreme advocates of the war. The charge emanated from 
the " Bureau of Military Justice," an institution similar to 
the " Secret Committee " of the French Revolution. After an 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 381 

investigation, continued through several months, a majority of 
that committee made their report to Congress. 

" The report not only failed to establish the charge, but 
the committee were forced to confess in it that the witnesses 
on whose testimony Holt (chief of the bureau) had affected 
to rely, were wholly untrustworthy. Shortly after this report 
was submitted, Mr. Rogers, of New Jersey, a member of the 
committee, made a minority report in which he stated that 
much of the evidence had been wholly suppressed ; that the 
witnesses, who had received large sums of money from Holt 
for testifying to the criminality of Mr. Davis, recanted their 
evidence before the committee, and acknowledged that they 
had perjured themselves by testifying to a mass of falsehoods, 
and had been tutored to do so by one, S. Conover ; and that, 
from him down through all the miserable list, the very names 
under which these hired informers were known to the public 
were as false as the narratives to which they had sworn." * 

* Baltimore Gazette, September 25, 1866. 



382 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LIX. 

FREE SPEECH SUPPRESSED IN THE NORTH. 

On April 13, 1863, General Burnside, commanding the 
Department of Ohio, issued an order declaring that, 

" Hereafter all persons found within our lines who commit 
acts for the benefit of the enemies of our country will be tried 
as spies or traitors, and, if convicted, will suffer death, . . 

" The habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy will no 
longer be tolerated in this department. Persons committing 
such offences will be at once arrested with a view to being 
tried as above stated, or sent beyond our lines into the lines 
of their friends." 

Mr. Vallandigham commented upon this order at a public 
meeting of citizens on May ist. Three days afterward a body 
of soldiers broke into his house with violence before daylight, 
hurried him to the cars, and conveyed him to Cincinnati, where 
he was committed to a military prison. Tried before a Mili- 
tary Commission, he was pronounced guilty, and sentenced 
to confinement in Fort Warren during the war, a sentence 
changed by President Lincoln to banishment to the Confed- 
erate States. 

A number of such arrests were made in Ohio. News- 
papers were suspended and editors imprisoned. 

In Pennsylvania arrests were made, newspapers suspended, 
editors put in jail, and ofifices destroyed. 

In New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wisconsin many similar 
scenes occurred. 

The Provost-Marshal system was used as a weapon of vin- 
dictiveness against influential citizens of opposite political 
views throughout all the Northern States. No one of such 
persons knew when he was safe. A complaint of his neigh- 
bors, supported by affidavit of " disloyal " words spoken or 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 383 

" disloyal " acts approved, received prompt attention from all 
marshals. Everything was brought into subjection to the will 
of the Government of the United States and its military 
officers. 

In view of all the facts here presented relative to the 
Northern States, let the reader answer where the sovereignty 
de facto resided. Most clearly in the Government of the 
United States. That presided over the ballot-box, held the 
keys of the prisons, arrested all citizens at its pleasure, sus- 
pended or suppressed newspapers, and did whatever it pleased 
under the declaration that the public welfare required it. 
But, under the principles of American liberty, the sovereignty 
is inherent in the people as an unalienable right ; and for the 
preservation and protection of this and other rights, the State 
Governments were instituted. If, therefore, the people have 
lost this inherent sovereignty, it is evident that the State 
Governments have failed to afford that protection for which 
they were instituted. If they have thus failed, it has been in 
consequence of their subversion and loss of power to fulfil the 
object for which they were established. This subversion was 
achieved when the General Government, under the pretext 
of preserving the Union, made war on its creators, the States, 
thus changing the nature of the Federal Union, which could 
rightfully be done only by the sovereign, thepeopleof the States, 
in like manner as it was originally formed. If they should 
permit their sovereignty to be usurped and themselves to be 
subjugated, individuals might remain, States could not. Of 
their wrecks a nation might be built, but there could not be a 
Union, for that implies entities united, and of the State which 
has lost its sovereignty there may be only written, " It was'' 



384 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LX. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA. 

Both the Federal and Confederate armies remained in a 
state of comparative quiet during the months of January and 
February, 1864. 

On February 26th, two corps of the enemy left their camp 
for Madison Court-House, part of a concerted plan to capt- 
ure Richmond ; a movement in which General Butler was to 
make a demonstration upon the city on the east, while Cus- 
ter, Kilpatrick, and Dahlgren were to attack and enter it on the 
west and north. Further forces were soon sent to Madison 
Court-House. At the same time General Custer marched 
for Charlottesville, for the purpose of destroying the Orange 
and Alexandria Railroad, running by Charlottesville to Gor- 
donsville. The capture of the army stores there, and the de- 
struction of the railroads and telegraphs would have severed 
the communication between Lee's army and Richmond by 
this route. The different movements, if successful, would 
have isolated Lee's army from its base of supplies. 

A few hours after General Custer started. General Kil- 
patrick, with 5,000 picked cavalry and a battery of 6 guns, left 
Stevensburg for the lower fords of the Rapidan. His ob- 
ject was to make a dash upon Richmond, release the United 
States prisoners, and do whatever injury might be possible. 
He moved rapidly, destroying railroads and depots, and plun- 
dering the country, until he reached the line of the defences of 
Richmond. There he was attacked in the rear by a company 
of 60 Marylanders, under Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, who 
had followed and harassed him during the raid, and opposed 
in front by Colonel Stevens, who, with a detachment of en- 
gineer troops, manned a few sections of light artillery. After 
an engagement of thirty minutes Kilpatrick's entire force 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 385 

began to retreat. At night his camp-fires were discovered by 
General Wade Hampton, who dismounted 100 men to act as 
infantry, and, supported by the cavalry, opened his two-gun 
battery on the enemy at short range. He then attacked the 
camp of Davies and of a part of two other brigades. The camp 
was taken, and the whole force of Kilpatrick fled at a gallop, 
leaving 105 prisoners and more than 100 horses. 

Colonel Dahlgren started with General Kilpatrick, but 
at Spottsylvania Court-House was despatched with 500 men 
to Frederick's Hall, a depot of the Central Railroad, where 
some 80 pieces of our reserve artillery had been parked. 
Finding the artillery too well guarded he moved onward un- 
til he reached within 22 miles west of Richmond. Then he 
moved toward the city, pillaging and destroying dwelling- 
houses, outbuildings, mills, canal-boats, grain, and cattle, and 
cutting one lock on the canal. 

After overcoming a small battalion of General G. W. C. 
Lee's force, which fell back until it joined a battalion of Treas- 
ury clerks, led by Captain Mcllhenney, Dahlgren moved on 
Richmond. Captain Mcllhenney charged him with such im- 
petuosity that Dahlgren and his men were routed, and rapidly 
retreated, leaving 18 killed, 20 to 30 wounded, and as many 
more prisoners on our hands. About lOO horses and equip- 
ments, a number of small-arms, and one 3-inch napoleon 
gun were captured. Our loss was 3 officers killed, and 3 lieu- 
tenants and 7 privates wounded. Dahlgren, to increase his 
chances of escape, divided his force into two parties, he lead- 
ing one party in the direction of King and Queen County. 
The Home Guard of the county turned out against the raid- 
ers, and, being reinforced by some furloughed cavalrymen of 
Lee's army, surprised and attacked Dahlgren's retreating col- 
umn, killing the leader, and capturing nearly 100 prisoners, 
with negroes, horses, etc. 

On the body of Dahlgren was found an address to his of- 
ficers and men, another paper giving special orders and instruc- 
tions, and one giving his itinerary, the whole disclosing the 
unsoldierly means and purposes of the raid, such as disguising 
the men in our uniform, carrying supplies of oakum and tur- 
pentine to burn Richmond, and, after releasing their prisoners 
25 



386 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

on Belle Isle, to exhort them to destroy the hateful city ; while 
on all was impressed the special injunction that the city must 
be burned, and "Jeff Davis and cabinet killed." 

The prisoners, having been captured in disguise, were, un- 
der the usages of war, liable to be hanged as spies ; but their 
protestations that their service was not voluntary, and the fact 
that as enlisted men they were subject to orders, and could 
not be held responsible for the infamous instructions under 
which they were acting, saved them from the death-penalty 
they had fully incurred. 

Photographic copies of the papers found on Dahlgren's 
body were taken and sent to General Lee, with instructions 
to communicate them to General Meade, with an inquiry 
whether such practices were authorized by his Government, 
and also to say that, if any question was raised as to the 
copies, the original papers would be submitted. No such ques- 
tion was then made, and the denial that Dahlgren's conduct 
had been authorized was accepted. 

Many sensational stories, having not even a basis of truth, 
were put in circulation to exhibit the Confederate authorities 
as having acted with unwarrantable malignity toward the 
deceased Colonel Dahlgren. The fact was that his body was 
sent to Richmond and decently buried in Oakwood Cemetery, 
where other Federal soldiers were buried. The enormity of 
his offence was not forgotten, but resentment against him 
ended with his life. It was also admitted that, however bad 
his previous conduct had- been, he met his fate gallantly, 
charging at the head of his men when he found himself inex- 
tricably encompassed by his foes. 

Custer and Kilpatrick, who were to have co-operated with 
Dahlgren, rapidly retreated, but not before Kilpatrick was 
met and routed by our gallant cavalier. General Wade Hamp- 
ton, near the Chickahominy. This ended the combined move- 
ment with which Northern papers had regaled their readers 
by announcing as made " with instructions to sack the rebel 
canital." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



387 



CHAPTER LXI. 

BUTLER BOTTLED UP. 

During the first week in May, 1864, General B. F. But- 
ler landed at Bermuda Hundred with a considerable force, 
and moved up so as to reach, by a raiding party, the railroad 
between Richmond and Petersburg. General Ransom, with 
a small force, attacked this advance of General Butler, and 
after a sharp skirmish compelled him to withdraw. 

Meantime General Ransom was summoned to Richmond 
to resist an impending assault by General Sheridan on the 
outer works north of the city. Taking two brigades he has- 
tened forward, arriving at the fortifications on the Mechanics- 
ville turnpike just in time to see a battery of artillery, then 
entirely unsupported, repulse the advance of Sheridan. Dur- 
the night the clerks and citizens, under General G. W. C. 
Lee, had formed a thin line along part of the fortifications 
on the west side of the city. As the day advanced Sheridan 
withdrew from before our defences, and the two brigades re- 
turned to the vicinity of Drury's Bluff, the approach on the 
south side of James River, by forces under Butler, being then 
considered the most imminent danger to Richmond. 

After the battle of the Wilderness, on May 4th and 5th, 
Grant moved his army toward Spottsylvania Court-House, 
and Lee made a corresponding movement. At this time 
Sheridan, with a large force of cavalry, passed around and to 
the rear of our army, so as to place himself on the road to 
Richmond, which, in the absence of a garrison to defend it, 
he may have not unreasonably thought might be surprised 
and captured. 

Stuart, our most distinguished cavalry commander, soon 
knew of Sheridan's movement, perceived its purpose, and, 
hastily collecting such of his troops as were near, pursued 



388 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Sheridan. He fell upon Sheridan's rear and flank at Beaver 
Dam Station, and drove it before him. The route of the 
enemy being unmistakably toward Richmond, Stuart, to pro- 
tect the capital, or at least to delay attack, made a detour 
around Sheridan, and by a forced march got in front of him, 
taking position at a place called Yellow Tavern, about seven 
or eight miles from Richmond. Here, notwithstanding the 
great inequality between his force and that of his foe, he de- 
cided to make a stand (May nth). The respective strength 
of the two commands (as given by Colonel Heros von Borke, 
chief of Stuart's staff) was, Stuart, i,ioo; Sheridan, 8,000. 
While engaged in this desperate service, Stuart sent couriers 
to Richmond to give notice of the approach of the enemy, so 
that the defences might be manned. 

Notwithstanding the great disparity of force, the contest 
was obstinate and protracted, and fickle fortune cheered our 
men with several brilliant successes. Stuart was always a 
leader when his cavalry charged. On this occasion he is rep- 
resented to have been quite in advance when he was wounded, 
to have fired the last load in his pistol, and to have been 
shot by a fugitive whom he found cowering under a fence, and 
ordered to surrender. The " heavy battalions " at last pre- 
vailed, our line was broken, and our leader, though mortally 
wounded, still kept in his saddle, invoking his men to continue 
the fight. Our gallant chieftain was brought wounded into 
Richmond, where he died a few hours later (May 12th). 

Grant's plan of campaign was to continue his movement 
against Lee's army, and, if he should be unable to defeat it 
and move directly to his objective point, Richmond, he was 
to continue his efforts so as to reach the James River below 
Richmond, and thus to connect with the army under Butler 
moving up on the south side of the James. The topography 
of the country favored that design. The streams in the coun- 
try in which he was operating all tended toward the south- 
east, and his changes of position were frequently made under 
cover of them. Butler, in the meantime, was ordered, with 
the force of his department — about 20,000 — reinforced by 
Gilmer's division of 10,000, to move up to City Point, there 
intrench, and concentrate all his troops as rapidly as possible. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 389 

From this base he was expected to operate so as to destroy 
the railroad connections between Richmond and the south. 
On the 7th of May he telegraphed that he had " destroyed 
many miles of railroad, and got a position which, with proper 
supplies, we can hold against the whole of Lee's army." 

At this time General Robert Ransom was in command at 
Richmond, including Drury's Bluff, His force for the defence 
of both places consisted of the men serving the stationary 
or heavy artillery, and three brigades of infantry. To these, 
in cases of emergency, the clerks and artisans in the depart- 
ments and manufactories were organized, to be called out as 
an auxiliary force when needed for the defence of the capi- 
tal. It was with this field force that Ransom moved on But- 
ler, and drove him from the railroad, the destruction of which 
he had so vauntingly announced. 

A few days thereafter he emerged from his cover, but 
changed his objective point, and, diverging from the south 
bank of the James River, moved toward Petersburg, and 
reached the railroad at Port Walthal Junction. Here he en- 
countered some of General Beauregard's command, which had 
been ordered from Charleston, and was driven from the rail- 
road and turnpike. The troops ordered from Charleston with 
Beauregard had, by May 14th, reached the vicinity of Drury's 
Bluff. In connection with the works and rifle-pits on the 
bluff, which were to command the river and prevent the as- 
cent of gunboats, an intrenched line had been constructed on 
a ridge about a mile south of the bluff, running across the 
road from Richmond to Petersburg. This ridge was higher 
than the ground on which the fort was built, and was designed 
to check an approach of the enemy from the south, as well as 
to cover the rear of the fort. On the afternoon of the 14th I 
rode down to visit General Beauregard. 

My first question on meeting him was to learn why the in- 
trenchments were abandoned. He answered that he thought 
it better to concentrate his troops. Upon my stating to him 
that there was nothing then to prevent Butler from turning 
his position, he said he would desire nothing better, as he 
would then fall upon him, cut him off from his base, etc. 

According to my uniform practice never to do more than 



390 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

make a suggestion to a general commanding in the field, 
the subject was pressed no further. We then passed to the 
consideration of the operations to be undertaken against But- 
ler, who had already advanced from his base at Bermuda 
Hundred. I offered, for the purpose of attacking Butler, to 
send General Ransom with the field force he had for the 
protection of Richmond. He reported to General Beaure- 
gard on the 15th, received his orders for the battle which was 
to occur the next day, and about 10 P.M. was, with a division 
of four brigades and a battery of light artillery, in position 
in front of the breastworks. Colonel Dunovant, with a regi- 
ment of cavalry not under Ransom's orders, was to guard the 
space between his left and the river, so as to give him infor- 
mation of any movement in that quarter. General Whiting, 
with some force, was holding a defensive position at 
Petersburg. General Beauregard proposed that the main 
part of it should advance and unite with him in an attack 
upon Butler, wherever he should be found between Drury's 
and Petersburg. To this I offered distinct objection, be- 
cause of the hazard, during a battle, of attempting to make a 
junction of troops moving from opposite sides of the enemy, 
and proposed that Whiting's command should move at night 
by the Chesterfield road, where they would not probably be 
observed by Butler's advance. This march I supposed they 
could make so as to arrive at Drury's by or soon after day- 
light. The next day being Sunday, they could rest, and, all 
the troops being assigned to their positions, they could move 
to make a concerted attack at daylight on Monday. 

On Monday morning I rode down to Drury's, where I 
found that the enemy had seized our line of intrenchments, it 
being unoccupied, and that a severe action had occurred, with 
serious loss to us, before he could be dislodged. He had 
crossed the main road to the west, entering a dense wood, and 
our troops on the right had moved out and were closely en- 
gaged with him. We drove him back, frustrating the attempt 
to turn the extreme right of our line. The day was wearing 
away, a part of the force had been withdrawn to the intrench- 
ments, and there was no sign of purpose to make any immedi- 
ate movement. General Beauregard said he was waiting to 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 391 

'hear Whiting's guns, and had been expecting him for some 
time to approach on the Petersburg road. Soon after this, 
the foe, in a straggling, disorganized manner, commenced 
crossing the road, moving to the east, which indicated a re- 
treat, or perhaps a purpose to turn our left and attack Fort 
Drury in rear. He placed a battery in the main road and 
threw some shells at our intrenchments, probably to cover his 
retiring troops. General Ransom, in an unpublished report, 
says that, at the time he received the order of battle. General 
Beauregard told him, " As you know the region, I have given 
you the moving part of the army, and you will take the initi- 
ative." He further states that at dawn of day he moved to 
the south of Kingsland Creek, formed two lines with a short 
interval, and at once advanced to the attack. A dense fo"- 
suddenly enveloped him, so as to obscure all distant objects. 
Moving forward, the skirmishers were quickly engaged, and 
the fighting was pressed so vigorously that by sunrise he had 
captured a brigade of infantry, a battery of artillery, and occu- 
pied about three-quarters of a mile of the enemy's temporary 
breastworks, which were strengthened by wire interwoven 
among the trees in their front. This result was not effected, 
however, without considerable loss in killed and wounded, and 
much confusion, owing to the denseness of the fog. On the 
next morning our troops moved down the river road as far 
as Hewlett's, about three or four miles, but saw no enemy. 
The " back-door " of Richmond was closed, and Butler 
was " bottled up." 

Soon after the affair at Drury 's Bluff, General Beauregard 
addressed to me a communication, proposing that he should 
be heavily reinforced from General Lee's army, so as to en- 
able him to crush Butler in his intrenchments, and then, with 
the main body of his own force, together with the detachment 
from General Lee's army, that he should join General Lee, 
overwhelm Grant, and march to Washington. I knew that 
General Lee was then confronting an army vastly superior to 
his in numbers, fully equipped, with inexhaustible supplies, 
and a persistence in attacking of which sufificient evidence had 
been given. I could not, therefore, expect that General Lee 
would consent to the proposition of General Beauregard j 



392 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

but, as a matter of courteous consideration, his letter was for- 
warded with the usual formal endorsement. General Lee's 
opinion on the case was shown by the instructions he gave 
directing General Beauregard to straighten his line so as to 
reduce the number of men requisite to hold it, and send the 
balance to join the army north of the James. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 393 



CHAPTER LXII. 

BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS. 

In March, 1864, Lieutenant-General Grant assumed com- 
mand of the armies of the United States. He subsequently 
proceeded to Culpeper and assumed personal command of 
the Army of the Potomac, although the nominal command 
remained with General Meade. From every military depart- 
ment of the United States reinforcements were rapidly gath- 
ered to strengthen the Federal army in Virginia. 

On May 3d Lee held the south bank of the Rapidan, 
with his right resting near the mouth of Mine Run, and his 
left extending to Liberty Mills. Ewell's corps was on the 
right, Hill's on the left, and two divisions of Longstreet's 
corps were encamped in the rear. The Federal army had oc- 
cupied the north bank of the Rapidan, with the main body 
encamped in Culpeper County and on the Rappahannock 
River. 

While Grant, with his immense and increasing army, was 
thus posted, Lee with a comparatively small force — to which 
few reinforcements could be furnished — confronted him on a 
line stretching from near Somerville Ford to Gordonsville, 
To Grant was left the choice to move directly on Lee and at- 
tempt to defeat his army— the only obstacle to the capture of 
Richmond, which his vast means rendered supposable— or to 
cross the Rapidan above or below Lee's position. The sec- 
ond would fulfil the condition, so imperatively imposed on 
McClellan, of covering Washington; the third would be in 
the more direct line to Richmond. Of the three, he chose 
the last, and so felicitated himself on his unopposed passage 
of the river as to suppose that he had, unobserved, turned the 
flank of Lee's army, got between it and Richmond, and neces- 
sitated the retreat of the Confederates to some point where 



394 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

they might resist his further advance. So little did he com- 
prehend the genius of Lee that he expected him to be sur- 
prised, as appears from his arrangements contemplating only 
combats with the rear-guard covering the retreat. 

Lee, dauntless as he was sagacious, seized the opportunity 
which Grant's movement offered, to meet him where his ar- 
tillery would be least available, where his massive columns 
would be embarrassed in their movements, and where South- 
ern individuality and self-reliance would be specially effective. 

Grant's object was to pass through " the Wilderness " to 
the roads between Lee and Richmond. Lee resolved to fight 
him in those pathless woods, where mind might best compete 
with matter. 

In order to cross the Rapidan, Grant's army moved, on 
May 3d, to Germania Ford, ten to twelve miles from our 
ri^ht. He succeeded in seizing the ford and crossing. When 
Grant had crossed the river he was nearer than Lee to Rich- 
mond. From Orange Court-House there are two nearly par- 
allel roads running eastward to Fredericksburg. The road 
nearest the river is called the " Stone Turnpike," and the 
other " the Plank Road." This road from the ford to Spott- 
sylvania Court-House crosses the old " Stone Turnpike " at the 
Old Wilderness Tavern, and, two or three miles farther on, it 
crosses the Plank Road. 

As soon as Grant's movements were known, Lee's troops 
were put in motion. Ewell's corps moved on the Stone Turn- 
pike, and Hill's corps on the Plank Road, into which Long- 
street's force also came from his camp near Gordonsville. 
Ewell's corps crossed Mine Run and encamped at Locust 
Grove, four miles beyond, on the afternoon of the 4th. On 
the morning of the 5th it was again in motion, and en- 
countered Grant's troops, in heavy force, at a short distance 
from the Old Wilderness Tavern, and Jones's and Battle's 
brigades were driven back in some confusion. Early's division 
was ordered up, advanced through a dense pine thicket, and, 
with other brigades of Rodes's division, drove the enemy back 
with heavy loss, capturing several hundred prisoners and 
gaining a commanding position on the right. Meanwhile 
Johnson's division, on the left of the pike, and extending across 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 395 

the road to Germania Ford, was heavily engaged in front, and 
Hays's brigade was sent to the left to participate in a forward 
movement. It advanced, encountered a large force, and, not 
meeting with the expected co-operation, was driven back. 
Subsequently Pegram's brigade took position on Hays's left. 
Just before night an attack was made on their front, which . 
was repulsed with severe loss to the enemy. There was hot 
skirmishing all along the line during the afternoon, and sev- 
eral attempts were made by the enemy to regain the position 
from which he had been driven. At the close of the day 
Ewell's corps had captured over 1,000 prisoners, besides in- 
flicting on the enemy very severe loss in killed and wounded. 
Two pieces of artillery had been abandoned and were secured 
by our troops. 

On the 4th A. P. Hill, with two divisions, moved east- 
ward ly along the Plank Road. They bivouacked near Ver- 
diersville, and resumed their march on the 5th. At i p.m. 
musketry was heard in front. Kirkland's brigade deployed 
on both sides of the Plank Road, and the column proceeded to 
form in line of battle on its flanks. Hill's advance had fol- 
lowed the Plank Road, while Ewell pursued the Stone Turn- 
pike. These parallel movements were from three to four 
miles apart. 

The country intervening and round about for several miles 
is known as " the Wilderness." It consists almost wholly of 
a forest of dense undergrowth of shrubs and small trees. To 
open communication with Ewell, Wilcox's division moved to 
the left and effected a junction with Gordon's brigade on 
Ewell's extreme right. The line of battle thus completed ex- 
tended from the right of the Plank Road through a succession 
of open fields and dense forest to the left of the Stone Turn- 
pike. It presented a line of six miles, and the thicket that 
lay along the whole front of our army was so impenetrable as 
to exclude the use of artillery save only at the roads. Heth's 
skirmishers were driven in about 3 p.m. by a massive column 
that advanced, firing rapidly. The struggle, thus commenced 
in Heth's front, continued unabated for two or three hours. 
The contest continued till night closed over our force still in 
the position it had originally taken, although greatly reduced. 



396 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

This stubborn and heroic resistance was made by the di- 
visions of Heth and Wilcox, 15,000 strong, against the re- 
peated and desperate assaults of five divisions numbering 
about 45,000 men. During the day the Ninth Corps of the 
enemy, under General Burnside, had come on the field. The 
third division of Hill's corps, under General Anderson, and 
the two divisions of Longstreet's corps did not reach the 
scene of conflict until dawn on the morning of the 6th. 

Simultaneously the attack on Hill was renewed with 
great vigor. In addition to the force he had so successfully 
resisted, a fresh division of the enemy had secured position on 
Hill's flank, and co-operated with the column assaulting in 
front. 

After a severe contest the left of Heth's division and the 
right of Wilcox's were overpowered before the advance of 
Longstreet's column reached the ground, and were compelled 
to retire. The repulsed portions of the divisions were in con- 
siderable disorder. General Lee now came up, and, appreci- 
ating the impending crisis, dashed amid the fugitives, calling 
on the men to rally and follow him. 

" The soldiers, seeing General Lee's manifest purpose to 
advance with them, and realizing the great danger in which 
he then was, begged him to go to the rear, promising that 
they would soon have matters rectified. The General waved 
them on with some words of cheer." * 

The assault was checked. 

Longstreet had now come up with his divisions. He de- 
ployed them in line of battle, and gallantly advanced to re- 
cover the lost ground. The enemy was driven back over the 
ground he had gained by his assault on Hill's line, but re- 
formed in the position previously held by him. About mid- 
day Longstreet ordered an attack on his left flank and rear. 
For this purpose three brigades were detached, and, on mov- 
ing forward, were joined by General J. R. Davis's brigade, 
which had been the extreme right of Hill's line. Making a 
detour to avoid observation, and rushing precipitately to attack 
the enemy in flank and reverse, while he was preparing to re- 

*Col, Walter Taylor's "Four Years with General Lee." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 397 

sist the movement in front, he was taken completely by sur- 
prise. The assault resulted in his utter rout with heavy loss. 

Preparations were now made to follow up the advantages 
gained, by the forward movement of the whole line under 
General Longstreet's personal directions. When advancing 
at the head of Jenkins's brigade, with that ofificer and others, 
a body of Confederates in the wood on the roadside, suppos- 
ing the column to be a hostile force, fired into it, killing 
General Jenkins and severely wounding General Longstreet. 
The valuable services of Longstreet were thus lost to the 
army at a critical moment, and caused the suspension of a 
movement promising the most important results ; and time 
was thus afforded to the enemy to rally and find shelter be- 
hind his intrenchments. In these circumstances the com- 
manding General deemed it inadvisable to attack. 

On the morning of the 6th the contest was renewed on 
the left, and a heavy attack was made on the front, occupied 
by Pegram's brigade, but it was handsomely repulsed, as were 
several subsequent attacks at the same point. In the after- 
noon an attack was made on the enemy's right flank, resting 
in the woods, when Gordon's brigade, with Johnson's in the 
rear, and followed by Pegram's, succeeded in throwing it into 
great confusion, doubling it up and forcing it back some dis- 
tance, capturing two brigadier-generals and several hundred 
prisoners. Darkness closed the contest. 

On the 7th an advance was made. It disclosed the fact 
that Grant had given up his line of works on his right. Dur- 
ing the day there was some skirmishing, but no serious fight- 
ing. 

The result of these battles was the infliction of severe loss 
on the enemy, the gain of ground, and the capture of prisoners, 
artillery, and other trophies. But the cost to us was so seri- 
ous as to enforce, by additional considerations, the policy of 
Lee to spare his men as much as possible. 

A rapid flank movement was next made by Grant to se- 
cure possession of Spottsylvania Court-House. Lee compre- 
hended Grant's purpose, and on the night of the 7th a divis- 
ion of Longstreet's corps was sent as an advance to that pomt. 
Stuart, then in observation on the flank, dismounted his 



398 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

troops, and, felling trees, obstructed the roads so as materi- 
ally to delay the march of the enemy. 

The head of the opposing forces arrived almost at the 
same moment on the 8th ; theirs, being a little in advance, 
drove back our cavalry, but in turn were quickly driven from 
the strategic point by the arrival of our infantry. 

On the 9th the two armies, each forming on its advance 
as a nucleus, swung round and confronted each other in line 
of battle. 

The lOth and nth passed in comparative quiet. 

On the morning of the 12th the enemy made a very heavy 
attack on Ewell's front, and broke the line where it was occu- 
pied by Johnson's division. 

A portion of the attacking force swept around Johnson's 
line to Wilcox's left, and was checked by a prompt move- 
ment on that flank. Several brigades sent to Ewell's assist- 
ance were carried into action under his orders. They all 
suffered severely. Subsequently, on the same day, some bri- 
gades were thrown to the front for the purpose of moving to 
the left and attacking the flank of the column which broke 
Ewell's line, to relieve the pressure upon him, and recover the 
part of the line which had been lost. These soon encountered 
Burnside's Ninth Corps, advancing to the attack. They capt- 
ured over 300 prisoners and three battle flags. Their attack 
on the enemy's flank, taking him by surprise, contributed 
materially to his repulse. 

On the 1 2th an attacking column advanced, under cover 
of a pine thicket, to within a very short distance of a salient 
defended by Walker's brigade. A heavy fire of musketry and 
artillery, from a considerable number of guns on Heth's line, 
opened with tremendous effect upon the column. It was driven 
back with severe loss, leaving its dead in front of our 
works. 

Several days of comparative quiet ensued.' During this 
time the army of Grant was heavily reinforced. " In numer- 
ical strength his army so much exceeded that under General 
Lee that, after covering the entire Confederate front with 
double lines of battle, he had in reserve a large force with 
which to extend his flank and compel a corresponding move- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 399 

ment on the part of his adversary, in order to keep between 
him and his coveted prize, the capital of the Confederacy." * 

On the 1 8th another assault was made on our lines.' It 
made no impression. 

On the 20th of May, after twelve days of skirmish and 
battle at Spottsylvania against a superior force. General Lee's 
information led him to believe that the enemy was about to 
attempt another flanking movement, and to interpose his army 
between the Confederate capital and its defenders. To defeat 
this purpose Longstreet was ordered to move at midnight 
in the direction of Hanover Junction, and on the following 
day and night Ewell's and Hill's corps marched for the same 
point. 

The Confederate commander, deeming that Grant's ob- 
jective point was the intersection of the two railroads leading 
to Richmond at a point two miles south of the North Anna 
River, crossed his army over that stream and took up a line 
of battle which frustrated the movement. 

Grant began his flanking movement on the night of the 
20th, marching in two columns, the right crossing the North 
Anna at Jericho Ford without opposition. On the 23d the 
left, crossing four miles further down, was obstinately resisted 
by a small force, and the passage was not made till the 24th. 

After crossing the North Anna, Grant discovered that his 
movement was a blunder, and that his army was in a position 
of much peril. 

The Confederate commander established his line of battle 
on the south side of the river, both wings reformed, so as to 
form an obtuse angle, with the apex resting on the river be- 
tween the two points of the enemy's crossing. Longstreet's 
and Hill's corps formed the two sides ; the Little River and the 
Hanover Marshes the base ; Ewell's corps held the apex or 
centre. 

The hazard of Grant's position appears not to have been 
known to him until he attempted to unite his two columns — 
four miles apart — by establishing a connecting line along the 
river. Foiled in the attempt, he discovered that the Confed- 

* From " Four Years with General Lee." 



400 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

erate army was interposed between his two wings, which were 
also separated by the North Anna, and that the one could 
give no support to the other except by a double crossing of 
the river. Profiting by the lessons of Spottsylvania and the 
Wilderness, Grant, with cautious, noiseless movement, with- 
drew, under cover of the night of the 26th, to the north side 
of the North Anna, and moved eastward down to the Pa- 
munkey River. 

At Hanover Junction Lee was joined by Pickett's division 
and by a small force under Breckinridge. Hoke's brigade, 
1,200 strong, here also rejoined Early's division. On the 29th 
the whole of Grant's army was across the Pamunkey, while 
Lee's army the next day was in line of battle, with his left at 
Atlee's Station. By another movement, eastward, the two 
armies were brought face to face at Cold Harbor, on June 3d. 

Here Grant made fruitless efforts to pierce or drive back the 
forces of Lee. Our troops were protected by temporary earth- 
works, and while under this cover were assailed by the enemy. 

" The carnage on the Federal side," writes General Taylor,* 
"was fearful. I well recall having received a report from Gen- 
eral Hoke, after the assault. His division reached the army 
just previous to the battle. The ground in his entire front, 
over which the enemy had charged, was literally covered with 
their dead and wounded; and, up to that time, Hoke had not 
had a single man killed. No wonder that, when the com- 
mand was given to renew the assault, the Federal soldiers sul- 
lenly and silently declined. 'The order t was issued through 
the officers to their subordinate commanders, and from them 
descended through the wonted channels; but no man stirred, 
and the immobile lines pronounced a verdict, silent yet em- 
phatic, against further slaughter. The loss on the Union side 
in this sanguinary action was over 13,000, while on the part of 
the Confederates it is doubtful whether it reached that many 
hundreds,' After some disingenuous proposals, General Grant 
finally asked a truce to enable him to bury his dead. Soon 
after this he abandoned his chosen line of operations, and 
moved his army so as to secure a crossing to the south side of 

• "Four Years with General Lee." 

f Swinton's "Army of the Potomac," p. 487. 




Confederate CJknekai.s. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 401 

James River. The struggle from the Wilderness to this point 
covered a period exceeding a month, during which time there 
had been an almost daily encounter of arms ; and the Army of 
Northern Virginia had placed hors de combat of the army un- 
der Grant a number exceeding the entire numerical strength 
of Lee's army at the commencement of the campaign, and, 
notwithstanding its own heavy losses and the reinforcements 
received by the enemy, it still presented an impregnable front 
to its opponent." 

On the 1st of May, 1864, two days before he crossed the 
Rapidan, Grant had 120,380 men, and in the Ninth Army 
Corps, 20,780 ; or an aggregate, with which he marched against 
Lee, of 141,160 men. To meet this vast force Lee had, on 
the Rapidan, less than 50,000 men. Grant had a reserve, 
upon which he could draw, of 137,672. Lee had practically no 
reserve; for he was compelled to make detachments from his 
army for the protection of West Virginia and other points 
about equal to all the reinforcements he received. In the 
" Southern Historical Papers," * upon the very trustworthy 
authority of the editor, there appears this statement : 

" Grant sajs he lost, in the campaign from The Wilderness 
to Cold Harbor, 39,000 men ; but Swinton puts his loss at over 
60,000, and a careful examination of the figures will show that 
his real loss was nearer 100,000. In other words, he lost about 
twice as many men as Lee had, in order to take a position 
which he could have taken at first without firing a gun or 
losing a man." 

On June 12th the movement for crossing the James River 
was commenced by Grant. On the 14th and 15th of June 
the crossing of Grant's army was completed. It had there- 
fore taken him more than a month to reach the south side of 
the James. In this campaign he had sacrificed a hecatomb of 
men, a vast amount of artillery, small-arms, munitions of war, 
and supplies, to reach a position to which McClellan had 
already demonstrated there was an easy and inexpensive route. 

After an unsuccessful attempt to capture Petersburg by a 
surprise. General Grant concentrated his army south of the 
Appomattox River. 

♦Vol. vi., p. 144. 



402 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

EARLY'S ADVANCE ON WASHINGTON AND CHAMBERSBURG. 

Before the opening of the campaign of 1864, Sigel held 
the Lower Shenandoah by a force with which Grant deter- 
mined to renew the attempt to destroy the railroad west of 
Lynchburg in order to isolate Richmond. With about 15,000 
men, Sigel began the movement up the Valley (May 3d). 
Breckinridge, commanding in southwestern Virginia, marched 
to meet Sigel, his two infantry brigades reinforced by the 
reserves of Augusta County, the cadets of the Military Insti- 
tute at Lexington, numbering 200, and a few hundred cavalry 
under General Imboden — Breckinridge's force of infantry not 
much exceeding 3,000. At this time Lee was engaged with 
the greatly superior force of Grant, who had crossed the Rap- 
idan, and Sigel's was a movement to get on our flank and 
thus co-operate in the capture of Richmond. The hazard 
incurred by an attack on Sigel's force was great, but the ne- 
cessity of the case justified it. Breckinridge's force was only 
enough to form one line of battle in two ranks, the cadets 
holding the centre between the two brigades. There were no 
reserves. Skirmish lines were promptly engaged, and soon 
thereafter the enemy fell back beyond New Market, where 
Sigel, assuming the defensive, took a strong position, in 
which to wait for an attack. Our artillery was moved for- 
ward and opened with effect upon the enemy's position ; then 
our infantry advanced, " with the steadiness of troops on dress 
parade, the precision of the cadets serving well as a color- 
guide for the brigades on either side to dress by. . . . 
The Federal line had the advantage of a stone wall which 
served as a breastwork." Sigel's cavalry attempted to turn 
our right, but was repulsed disastrously, and in a few moments 
the enemy was in full retreat, crossing the Shenandoah and 
burnine: the bridge behind him. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 403 

Breckinridge captured 5 pieces of artillery and over 500 
prisoners, exclusive of the wounded left on the field. Our 
loss was several hundred killed and wounded. General Lee 
on receiving notice of this engagement, ordered Breckinridge 
to transfer his command as rapidly as possible to Hanover 
Junction. 

The battle was fought on May 15th, and the command 
reached Hanover Junction on the 20th. 

After Breckinridge's departure, General W. E. Jones had 
come from Southwestern Virginia with a small cavalry force, 
and this, with the command of Imboden, only sufficient for 
observation, was all that remained in the Valley when the 
Federal General, David Hunter, with a larger force than his 
predecessor, succeeded Sigel. Jones, with his cavalry and a 
few infantry, encountered this force at Piedmont, and was de- 
feated and killed. On the receipt of this news Breckinridge, 
with his command, was sent back to the Valley. 

On June 13th General Early, with the Second Corps of 
Lee's army, numbering a little over 8,000 muskets and two 
battalions of artillery, commenced a march to strike Hunter's 
force in the rear, and, if possible, destroy it ; then to move 
down the Valley, cross the Potomac, and threaten Washing- 
ton. 

On the 17th he reached Lynchburg. Hunter arrived 
there at the same time. Preparations were made for the at- 
tack on Hunter on the 19th, when he began to retreat. He 
was pursued, with much loss, until he escaped by taking the 
route to the Kanawha River. On the 27th Eady's force 
reached Staunton on its march down the Valley. It now 
amounted to 10,000 infantry and about 2,000 cavalry, having 
been joined by Breckinridge, and by Colonel Bradley T. 
Johnson with a battalion of Maryland cavalry. The advance 
was rapid. Railroad bridges were burned, the track was 
destroyed, and stores were captured. The Potomac was 
crossed on the 5th and 6th of June, and a move was made 
through the gaps of South Mountain to the north of Maryland 
Heights, which were occupied by a hostile force. A brigade 
of cavalry was sent north of Frederick to strike the railroads 
from Baltimore to Harrisburg and Philadelphia, burn the 



404 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

bridges over the Gunpowder, cut the railroad between Wash- 
ington and Baltimore, and threaten the latter place. The 
other troops moved forward toward Monocacy Junction, where 
a considerable body of Federal troops under General Wallace ^ 
was found posted on the eastern bank of the Monocacy, with 
an earthwork and two block-houses commanding both bridges. 
The position was attacked in front and on the flank ; it was 
carried, and the garrison put to flight. Between 600 and 700 
unwounded prisoners fell into our hands, and the enemy's 
loss in killed and wounded was far greater than ours, which 
was about 700. 

An advance was made on the loth nearly to Rockville, 
which was continued next day to Washington, with the hope 
of getting into the fortifications before they could be manned. 
But the heat and the dust impeded the progress greatly. Fort 
Stevens was approached soon after mid-day, and appeared to be 
lightly manned ; but before our force could get into the works 
a column of the enemy from Washington filed into them on 
the right and left, skirmishers were thrown out in front, and 
an artillery fire was opened on us from a number of batteries. 
An examination made to determine if it were practicable to 
carry the defences by assault, reported that they were " ex- 
ceedingly strong, and consisted of what appeared to be in- 
closed forts for heavy artillery, with a tier of lower works in 
front of each, pierced for an immense number of guns, the 
whole being connected with curtains, with ditches in front, 
and strengthened by palisades and abatis. The timber had 
been felled within cannon-range all around, and left on the 
ground, making a formidable obstacle, and every possible ap- 
proach was raked by artillery." As far as the eye could reach 
the works appeared to be of the same impregnable character. 
The exhaustion of our force, the lightness of its artillery, and 
the information that two corps of the enemy's forces had just 
arrived in Washington, in addition to the veteran reserves and 
hundred-day men, and the parapets filled with troops, led us 
to refrain from making an attack and to retire during the 
night of the 12th. On the morning of the 14th Early re- 
crossed the Potomac, with all his prisoners and other captures, 
in safety. There was some skirmishing in our rear between 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 405 

our cavalry and the Federal cavalry that was following us, and 
on the afternoon of the 14th there was artillery-firing across 
the river at our cavalry watching the fords. 

In the meantime General Hunter had united with Sio-el 
at Harper's Ferry, and some skirmishing took place. Early 
determined to concentrate near Strasburg ; and, crossino- Cedar 
Creek, so posted his force as to cover all the roads from the 
direction of Winchester. Learning next day that the Army 
of West Virginia was at Kernstown, he resolved to attack it. 

After the enemy's skirmishers had been driven in, it was 
discovered that his left flank was exposed, and Breckinridge 
was ordered to move a division under cover of some ravines 
and attack that flank. This movement was made and resulted 
in the complete rout of the enemy. He was pursued by the 
artillery and infantry beyond Winchester. Our loss was very 
light ; his loss in killed and wounded was severe. The whole 
defeated force crossed the Potomac and took refuge at Mary- 
land Heights and Harper's Ferry. The road was strewed 
with debris of the rapid flight, 12 caissons and 72 wagons hav- 
ing been abandoned, and most of them burned. 

On the 26th the Confederate force moved to Martinsburg. 

" While at Martinsburg," says General Early in his me- 
moir, " it was ascertained beyond all doubt that Hunter had 
been again indulging in his favorite mode of warfare, and that, 
after his return to the Valley, while we were near Washington, 
among other outrages the private residences of Andrew 
Hunter, a member of the Virginia Senate, Alexander R. Bo- 
teler, an ex-member of the Confederate Congress, as well as of 
the United States Congress, and Edmund I. Lee, a distant rela- 
tive of General Lee, all in Jefferson County, with their con- 
tents, had been burned by his orders, only time enough being 
given for the ladies to get out of the houses. A number of 
towns in the South, as well as private country-houses, had 
been burned by Federal troops, and the accounts had been 
heralded forth in some of the Northern papers in terms of 
exultation, and gloated over by their readers, while they were 
received with apathy by others. I now came to the conclu- 
sion that we had stood this mode of warfare long enough, and 
that it was time to open the eyes of the people of the North 



406 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

to its enormity by an example in the way of retaliation. I 
did not select the cases mentioned as having more merit or 
greater claims for retaliation than others, but because they 
had occurred within the limits of the country covered by my 
command, and were brought more immediately to my atten- 
tion.* 

" The town of Chambersburg was selected as the one 
on which retaliation should be made, and McCausland was 
ordered to proceed with his brigade and that of Johnson, and 
a battery of artillery, to that place, and demand of the munic- 
ipal authorities the sum of $100,000 in gold, or $500,000 in 
United States currency, as a compensation for the destruction 
of the houses named and their contents; and in default of 
payment to lay the town in ashes, in retaliation for the burn- 
ing of those houses and others in Virginia, as well as for the 
towns which had been burned in other Southern States. A 
written demand to that effect was also sent to the municipal 
authorities, and they were informed what would be the result 
of a failure or a refusal to comply with it. I desired to give 
the people of Chambersburg an opportunity of saving their 
town, by making compensation for part of the injury done, 
and hoped that the payment of such a sum would have the 
desired effect, and open the eyes of people of other towns at 
the North to the necessity of urging upon their Government 
the adoption of a different policy. 

" On July 30th McCausland reached Chambersburg, and 

* "I had often seen delicate ladies who had been plundered, insulted, and 
rendered desolate by the acts of our most atrocious enemies, and, while they did 
not call for it, yet in the anguished expressions of their features while narrating 
their misfortunes, there was a mute appeal to every manly sentiment of my bosom 
for retribution, which I could no longer withstand. On my passage through the 
Lower Valley into Maryland, a lady had said to me, with tears in her eyes : ' Our 
lot is a hard one, and we see no peace ; but there are a few green spots in our 
lives, and they are when the Confederate soldiers come along, and we can do 
something for them.' May God defend and bless these noble women of the Val- 
ley, who so often ministered to the wounded, sick, and dying Confederate sol- 
diers, and gave their last morsel of bread to the hungry ! They bore with heroic 
courage the privations, sufferings, persecutions, and dangers to which the war, 
which was constantly waged in their midst, exposed them, and upon no portion 
of the Southern people did the disasters which finally befell our army and coun- 
try fall with more crushing effect than on them." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 407 

made the demand as directed, reading to such of the authori- 
ties as presented themselves the paper sent by me. The de- 
mand was not complied with, the people stating that they 
were not afraid of having their town burned, and that a Fed- 
eral force was approaching. The policy pursued by our army 
on former occasions had been so lenient that they did not sup- 
pose the threat was in earnest at this time, and they hoped 
for speedy relief. McCausland, however, proceeded to carry 
out his orders, and the greater part of the town was laid in 
ashes. He then moved in the direction of Cumberland, but 
found it defended by a strong force. He then withdrew and 
crossed the Potomac, near the mouth of the South Branch, 
capturing the garrison and partly destroying the railroad 
bridge. Averill pursued from Chambersburg, and surprised 
and routed Johnson's brigade, and caused a loss of 4 pieces of 
artillery and about 300 prisoners from the whole command." 



408 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXIV. 

BATTLE OF WINCHESTER. 

Meantime a large force of the Federal army, consisting 
of the Sixth, Nineteenth, and Crook's Corps, had concentrated 
at Harper's Ferry under General Sheridan. Early had 8,500 
infantry fit for duty, nearly 3,000 mounted men, 3 battalions of 
artillery, and a few pieces of horse-artillery. Sheridan's force, 
according to the best information, consisted of 10,000 cavalry, 
35,000 infantry, and artillery that greatly outnumbered ours 
both in men and guns. 

On the morning of September 19th, 1864, the enemy be- 
gan to advance on Ramseur's position, about a mile and a half 
from Winchester, on the Berryville road. Nelson's artillery 
was posted on Ramseur's line, covering the approaches as far 
as practicable ; and Lomax, with Jackson's cavalry and a part of 
Johnson's, was on the right, while Fitzhugh Lee was on the 
left with cavalry. These troops held the enemy's main force 
in check until Gordon's and Rodes's divisions arrived, a little 
after 10 A.M. Gordon was placed under cover in rear of a 
piece of woods. Rodes formed on Gordon's right, in rear of 
another piece of woods. We soon discovered very heavy 
columns, which had been massed under cover, moving to at- 
tack Ramseur on the left flank, while another force pressed 
him in front. Rodes and Gordon were immediately hurled 
upon the flank of the advancing columns. But Evans's bri- 
gade, of Gordon's division, on the extreme left of our infantry, 
was forced back through the woods from behind which it had 
advanced, by a column which followed to the rear of the woods 
and within musket range of seven pieces of Braxton's artil- 
lery. Braxton's guns stood their ground and opened with 
canister. The fire was so well directed that the column 
staggered, halted, and commenced falling back. Just then 




E.KiRBY Smith. ( 



CONFEDERATK tlENK.KAI-S. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 409 

Battle's brigade moved forward and swept through the woods 
driving the enemy before it, while Evans's brigade was rallied 
and co-operated. Our advance was resumed, and the enemy's 
attacking columns, the Sixth and the Nineteenth Corps, were 
thrown into great confusion and fled from the field. General 
Early exclaims : 

" It was a grand sight to see this immense body hurled 
back in utter disorder between my two divisions, numberino- 
very little over 5,000 muskets ! " 

This affair occurred about 1 1 A.M., and a splendid victory 
had been gained. But the enemy had a small corps which 
had not been engaged, and there remained his heavy force of 
cavalry. Our lines were now formed across from Abraham's 
Creek to Red Bud, and were very attenuated. There were 
still seen in front a formidable force, and away to the right a 
division of cavalry massed, with some artillery, overlapping us 
at least a mile. Late in the afternoon two divisions of the 
enemy's cavalry drove in the small force that had been watch- 
ing on the Martinsburg road ; and Crook's corps, which had 
not been engaged, advanced at the same time on the north 
side of the Red Bud and forced back our brigade of infantry 
and cavalry. A considerable force of cavalry then swept 
along the Martinsburg road to the skirts of Winchester, thus 
getting in the rear of our left flank. They were soon driven 
back by two of Wharton's brigades, and subsequently another 
charge of cavalry was also repulsed. But many of the men 
in the front line, hearing the fire in the rear, and thinking 
they were flanked and about to be cut off, commenced to fall 
back. At the same time Crook's corps advanced against our 
left, and Evans's brigade was thrown into line to meet it ; but 
after an obstinate resistance that brigade also retired. The 
whole front line had now given way, but was rallied and 
formed behind some old breastworks, and with the aid of 
artillery the progress of the enemy's infantry was arrested. 
Their cavalry afterward succeeded in getting round on our left, 
producing great confusion, for which there was no remedy. 

We now retired through Winchester, a new line was 
formed, and the hostile advance checked until nightfall. We 
then retired to Newtown without serious molestation. 



4IO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

This battle had lasted from daylight until dark, and at 
the close of it we had been forced back two miles, after hav- 
ing repulsed the first attack with great slaughter, and subse- 
quently contested every inch of ground with unsurpassed ob- 
stinacy. Our loss was severe for the size of our force, but 
only a fraction of that ascribed to us by the foe ; while his 
was very heavy. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 411 



CHAPTER LXV. 

MILITARY OPERATIONS AFTER WINCHESTER. 

Several minor engagements without important results 
followed the battle of Winchester. On October 5th Rosser, 
with 600 mounted men, joined Early, who moved forward to 
New Market on the 7th. Rosser pushed forward on the back 
and middle roads in pursuit of Federal cavalry, which, in ex- 
ecuting Sheridan's orders, were burning houses, mills, barns, 
and stacks of wheat and hay, and he had several skirmishes 
with it. 

The enormous damage done by Sheridan's campaign of 
arson may be seen from the fact that a committee of citizens 
and magistrates, appointed by the County Court of Rocking- 
ham to estimate the damage, reported, after a careful investi- 
gation, as follows : 

" Dwelling-houses burned, 30; barns burned, 450; mills 
burned, 31; fences destroyed (miles), 100; bushels of wheat 
destroyed, 100,000; bushels of corn destroyed, 50,000 ; tonsof 
hay destroyed, 6,233 '> cattle carried off, 1,750 ; horses carried 
off, 1,750; sheep carried off, 4,200; hogs carried off, 3,350; 
factories burned, 3 ; furnaces burned, i. In addition there 
Avas an immense amount of farming utensils of every descrip- 
tion destroyed, many of them of great value, such as reapers 
and thrashing-machines; also household and kitchen furni- 
ture, and money, bonds, plate, etc., pillaged." 

Early, having learned that Sheridan was preparing to send 
a part of his troops to Grant, moved down the Valley^ and 
found the enemy in strong force on the north bank of Cedar 
Creek. As it was necessary to attack him or move back for 
provisions and forage, Early determined to engage him, and 
drove him from his position to a new one about two miles 
north of Middletown, where he formed a line of battle behind 
breastworks. 



412 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

" It was now apparent," says General Early, " that it would 
not do to press my troops further. They had been up all 
night, and were much jaded. In passing over rough ground 
to attack the enemy at dawn their own ranks had been much 
disordered and the men scattered, and it required time to re- 
form them. Their ranks were much thinned by the absence 
of the men engaged in plundering the enemy's camps." 

It was therefore determined to hold what had been gained, 
and orders were given to carry off the captured and abandoned 
artillery, small-arms, and wagons. A number of bold attempts 
were made by the enemy's cavalry to break our line, but they 
were invariably repulsed (Oct. 19th). 

Late in the afternoon the Federal infantry advanced against 
the lines of Ramseur, Kershaw, and Gordon. The attacks on 
Ramseur's and Kershaw's fronts were handsomely repulsed. 
But a portion of the assailants had penetrated an interval 
between Evans's brigade, on the extreme left, and the rest 
of the line, when that brigade gave way, and Gordon's other 
brigades soon followed. General Gordon vainly tried to rally 
his men. The affair was soon known with exaggerations along 
Kershaw's and Ramseur's lines, and their men, fearing to be 
flanked, began to fall back in disorder. Observing the disor- 
der in our ranks the enemy's cavalry made another charge on 
our right, but were again repulsed. Every effort was made to 
rally the men, but the mass of them refused to stand. Three 
hundred men of Ramseur's division, and about the same num- 
ber from Conner's brigade, aided by several pieces of artillery, 
held the whole force on our left in check for an hour and a 
half, until Ramseur was shot down, and the artillery ammu- 
nition was exhausted. Then the force that had continued 
steady gave way also. Every effort to rally the men in the 
rear having failed, the troops were ordered to retire. Whar- 
ton's divisions and Wofford's brigade had remained steadfast. 
The disorder soon extended to them. 

The troops were halted at New Market, seven miles from 
Mount Jackson. Our loss in the battle of Cedar Creek was 
23 pieces of artillery, some ordnance and medical wagons, and 
ambulances, about 1,860 killed and wounded, and something 
over 1,000 prisoners. Fifteen hundred prisoners were capt- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 413 

ured from the enemy and brought off, and his loss in killed 
and wounded was very heavy. We had in this battle about 
8,500 muskets and a little over 40 pieces of artillery. Sheri- 
dan's cavalry numbered 8,700, and his infantry force was fully 
as large as at Winchester. 

Subsequently General Early confronted Sheridan's whole 
force, north of Cedar Creek, for two days without any attack 
being made on him. On November 27th the fortified post at 
New Creek, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, was surprised 
and captured by General Rosser. Two regiments of Federal 
cavalry, with their arms and colors, were taken, and 8 pieces of 
artillery and a very large amount of ordnance, quartermaster's, 
and commissary stores fell into our hands. Eight hundred 
prisoners, 4 pieces of artillery, and some wagons and horses 
were brought off. 

When the campaign closed the invader held precisely the 
same position in the Valley which he held before the opening 
of the campaign in the spring. 



414 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXVI. 

THE RED RIVER CAMPAIGN. 

In the Red River country of Louisiana it became certain, in 
February, 1864, that the enemy was about to make an expedi- 
tion against our forces there under General Richard Taylor. 
The Federal forces were to be commanded by General N. P. 
Banks, augmented by a portion of Sherman's Vicksburg army, 
and to be accompanied by a fleet of gunboats under Admiral 
Porter. With these the force of General Steele, in Arkan- 
sas, was to co-operate. 

On March 12th Admiral Porter, with 19 gunboats and 
10,000 men of Sherman's army, entered the Red River. On 
the 15th the advance of Porter reached Alexandria, and on the 
19th General Franklin left the Lower Teche with 18,000 men 
to meet him. General Steele reported his force at 7,000 men. 
General Taylor's army had been increased to 5,300 infantry, 
500 cavalry, 300 artillerymen ; and Liddell had about the 
same number of cavalry, and a four-gun battery. 

General Taylor selected, three miles from Mansfield, a 
position in which to wait for an expected attack from the 
enemy, who were reported to be advancing in force to assail 
him. Taylor's force now amounted to 5,300 infantry, 3,000 
mounted men, and 500 artillery — total, 8,800. Banks's force 
was estimated at 25,000. 

As the enemy showed no disposition to advance, a forward 
movement of our whole line was made (April 8th). On the left 
our forces crossed the field under a heavy fire and entered the 
wood, where a bloody contest ensued, which resulted in gradu- 
ally turning their right, which was forced back with loss of 
prisoners and guns. On the right little resistance was encoun- 
tered until the wood was entered. Finding that our force 
outflanked the opponent's left, the right brigade was kept ad- 
vanced, and we swept everything before us. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 415 

His first line, consisting of all the mounted force and one 
division of the Thirteenth Corps, was in full flight, leaving in 
our hands prisoners, guns, and wagons. Two miles to the rear 
of the first position the Second Division of the Thirteenth 
Corps was brought up. It was speedily routed, losing guns 
and prisoners. The advance was continued. Four miles from 
the original position the Nineteenth Army Corps was found 
drawn up on a ridge overiooking a stream. Sharp work fol- 
lowed ; but as our force persisted, his fell back at nightfall. 
Twenty-five hundred prisoners, 20 pieces of artillery, several 
stands of colors, many thousands of small arms, and 250 
wagons were taken. 

On the next morning the enemy was found about a mile 
in front of Pleasant Hill, which occupies a plateau a mile wide 
from west to east along the Mansfield road. His lines ex- 
tended across the plateau from the highest ground on the 
west ; his left, to a wooded height on the right of the Mans- 
field road. Winding in front of this position was a dry gully 
cut by winter rains, bordered by a thick grove of young pines. 
This was held by his advanced cavalry, his main lines and 
guns being on the plateau. The forces of General Taylor — 
Churchill's brigade having joined him — amounted to 12,500 
men, against 18,000 of General Banks, among them the fresh 
corps of General A. J. Smith. The action opened about 
4.30 A.M. An obstinate battle ensued, with much confusion. 
Night ended the conflict on our right, and both sides occupied 
their original positions. Banks made no attempt to recover 
the ground from which his left and centre had been driven. 
During the night he retreated, leaving 400 wounded, and his 
dead unburied. Next morning he was pursued twenty miles 
before his rear was overtaken. On the road were found strag- 
glers and burning wagons and stores. Our loss in the two 
actions of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill was 2,200. At Pleas- 
ant Hill the loss was 3 guns and 426 prisoners. The loss of 
the enemy in killed and wounded was larger than ours. We 
captured, not including stragglers, 2,800 prisoners and 20 
guns. Their campaign was defeated. 



4l6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXVII. 

FORT PILLOW. 

On April 12, 1864, an attack was made by two brigades of 
General N. B. Forrest's force, under General J. R. Chalmers, 
upon Fort Pillow. Fort Pillow was an earthwork on a bluff 
on the east side of the Mississippi, at the mouth of Coal 
Creek. It was garrisoned by 400 men and 6 pieces of artil- 
lery. General Chalmers promptly gained possession of the 
outer works and drove the garrison to their main fortifica- 
tions. The fort was crescent-shaped, the parapet 8 feet in 
heio'ht and 4 feet across the top, surrounded by a ditch 6 feet 
deep and 12 feet in width. About this time General Forrest 
arrived, and he soon ordered his forces to move up. The 
brigade of Bell, on the northeast, advanced until it gained a 
position in which the men were sheltered by the conformation 
of the ground, which was intersected by a ravine. The other 
brigade, under McCulloch, carried the intrenchments on the 
highest part of the ridge, immediately in front of the south- 
eastern face of the fort, and occupied a cluster of cabins on 
its southern face and about sixty yards from it. The line of 
investment was now short and complete, within an average 
distance of one hundred yards. It extended from Coal Creek 
on the north, which was impassable, to the river-bank south 
of the fort. In the rear were numerous sharpshooters, well 
posted on commanding ridges, to pick off the garrison when- 
ever they exposed themselves. At the same time our forces 
were so placed that the artillery could not be brought to bear 
upon them with much effect except by a fatal exposure of the 
gunners. During all this time a gunboat in the river kept up 
a continuous fire in all directions, but without effect. General 
Forrest, confident of his ability to take the fort by assault, 
which it seemed must be perfectly apparent to the garrison, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 417 

and desiring to prevent further loss of life, sent a demand 
for an unconditional surrender, with the assurance that they 
would be treated as prisoners of war. The answer was 
written with a pencil on a slip of paper: " Negotiations will 
not attain the desired object." Meantime three boats were 
seen to approach, the foremost of which was apparently laden 
with troops ; and, as an hour's time had been asked for to 
communicate with the officers of the gunboat, it seemed to be 
a pretext to gain time for reinforcements. General Forrest, 
understanding that the enemy doubted his presence and pro- 
nounced the demand to be a trick, also declared himself and 
demanded an answer within twenty minutes, whether the 
commander would fight or surrender. Meanwhile the fore- 
most boat indicated an intention to land, but a few shots 
caused her to withdraw to the other side of the river, along 
which they all passed up. The answer from the fort was a 
positive refusal to surrender. Three companies on the left 
were now placed in an old rifle-pit and almost in the rear of 
the fort, and on the right a portion of Barton's regiment of 
Bell's brigade was also under the bluff and in the rear of the 
fort. 

The works were carried without a halt. As the troops 
poured into the fortification the enemy retreated toward the 
river, arms in hand and firing back, and their colors flying, 
expecting the gunboat to shell us away from the bluff and 
protect them until they could be taken off or reinforced. As 
they descended the bluff an enfilading and deadly fire was 
poured in upon them from right to left by the forces in rear 
of the fort, of whose presence they were ignorant. To this 
was now added the destructive fire of the regiments that had 
stormed the fort. Fortunately some of our men cut down the 
flag, and the firing ceased. Our loss was 20 killed and 60 
wounded. Of the enemy 228 were buried that evening, and 
quite a number next day. We captured 6 pieces of artillery 
and about 350 stand of small-arms. The gunboat escaped up 
the river. 

27 



4l8 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXVIII. 

JOHNSTON'S RETROGRESSIVE CAMPAIGN. 

On December i6, 1863, I directed General Joseph E. 
Johnston to transfer the command of the Department of Mis- 
sissippi and East Louisiana to General Polk, and to proceed 
to Dalton, Ga., and there assume command of the Army 
of the Tennessee, representing at that date an effective force 
of 43,094 men. My information led me to believe that the 
condition of that army was satisfactory in all that constitutes 
efificiency — that the men were eager for an opportunity to 
retrieve the loss of prestige sustained in the disastrous battle 
of Missionary Ridge. I was also informed that the enemy's 
forces were weaker than at any time since that battle, and 
especially deficient in cavalry, artillery, and train horses. The 
Federal army occupied Chattanooga, Bridgeport, and Ste- 
venson, with a detached force at Knoxville. I desired that 
prompt and vigorous measures should be taken to enable our 
troops to begin active operations against the enemy as early 
as practicable, not only because it was important to guard 
against the injurious results to the morale of the troops which 
always attend a prolonged season of inactivity, but because, 
also, the recovery of the territory in Tennessee and Kentucky 
which we had been forced to abandon, and on the supplies of 
which the proper subsistence of our armies mainly depended, 
imperatively demanded an onward movement. I believed 
that by a rapid concentration of our troops between the scat- 
tered forces of the enemy, without attempting to capture his 
intrenched positions, we could compel him to accept battle in 
the open field, and that, should we fail to draw him out of his 
intrenchments, we could move upon his line of communica- 
tion. I repeatedly urged on General Johnston, both by letter 
and by officers of my staff, the importance of a prompt aggres- 
sive movement. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 419 

General Johnston cordially approved of an agoressive 
movement, and notified me of his purpose to make it as soon 
as reinforcements and supplies then on the way should reach 
him. He did not approve of the proposed advance into Ten- 
nessee, but preferred to stand on the defensive until strength- 
ened ; " to watch, prepare, and strike " as soon as possible. He 
declared his purpose, as soon as reinforced, to advance to 
Ringgold, attack there, and, if successful, to strike at Cleve- 
land, cut the railroad, control the river, isolate East Ten- 
nessee, and consequently force his antagonist to give battle on 
this side of the Tennessee River. Simultaneously with this 
movement, and to aid it. General Johnston proposed that a 
large cavalry force should be sent to Middle Tennessee, in the 
rear of the enemy. By these operations he believed that the 
Federal army would be forced to evacuate the Tennessee Val- 
ley, when an advance into the heart of the State would be 
safely practicable. 

The irreparable loss of time in making any forward move- 
ment having allowed the combinations which rendered an 
advance across the Tennessee River no longer practicable, I 
took prompt measures to enable General Johnston to carry 
out immediately his own proposition, to strike first at Ring- 
gold and then at Cleveland, proposing that General Buckner 
should threaten Knoxville, General Forrest advance into and 
threaten INIiddle Tennessee, and General Roddy hold the en- 
emy in Northern Alabama. This movement might have been 
successful if it had been promptly executed, although it held 
out no such promise as did the plan of advance before the en- 
emy had had time to make his combinations. General John- 
ston's belief that General Grant would be ready to assume 
the offensive before he could be prepared to do so, proved too 
well founded ; while his purpose that we should take the ini- 
tiative if the Federal army did not attack, was never carried 
out. 

On May 2, 1864, Johnston discovered that the enemy 
was advancing against him under the command of General 
Sherman ; and two days later it was reported that he had 
reached Ringgold, about fifteen miles north of Dalton, in con- 
siderable force. 



420 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

According to official returns the effective strength of Gen- 
eral Johnston's army, including Polk's command, then en 
route, was not less than 68,620 men of all arms, excluding from 
this estimate the thousands of men employed on extra duty, 
amounting, as General Hood states, to 10,000 when he as- 
sumed command. 

No effort was spared by the Government to enable John- 
ston to repulse the hostile advance and assume the offensive. 
Almost all the available military strength of the South and 
West, in men and supplies, was pressed forward to him. 
The supplies of the commissary, quartermaster, and ordnance 
departments of his army were represented as ample and suita- 
bly located. The troops were eager to advance, and confident 
in their power to achieve victory and recover the territory 
they had lost. Their position warranted the confidence of suc- 
cessful resistance at least. Long mountain ranges, penetrated 
by few and difficult roads and paths, and deep and wide 
rivers, seemed to render our position one which could not be 
turned, and from which we could not be dislodged ; while 
that of the enemy was manifestly perilous, as he was depend- 
ent for his supplies upon a single line of railroad from Nash- 
ville. Both the country and the Government shared the hope 
that a decisive victory would soon be won in the mountains 
of Georgia, which would free the South and West from inva- 
sion, open to our occupation and the support of our armies 
the productive territory of Tennessee and Kentucky, and so 
recruit our army in the West as to render it impracticable for 
the enemy to accumulate additional forces in Virginia. 

On May 6th the Confederate army was in position in and 
around Dalton, in daily expectation of an attack from Sher- 
man's whole force. No attack was made. On the evening of 
the 1 2th of May Johnston withdrew his troops and fell back 
on Resaca, eighteen miles south of Dalton, a strong position on 
a peninsula formed by the junction of two rivers, and further 
fortified by continuous rifle-pits and earthworks; but he soon 
abandoned it and withdrew toward Adairsville, thirteen miles 
south on the railroad. General Johnston, not finding the 
narrow valley north of Adairsville to be as advantageous as 
he had hoped, again ordered a further retreat to Cassville, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 42 1 

seventeen miles further south, where he announced his inten- 
tion to do battle with the enemy at Kingston. He supposed 
that the enemy would divide his forces into two columns 
before reaching Kingston ; and as that point would be the place 
of their greatest distance from each other, he proposed to 
assail them there. The battle was announced in orders to 
each regiment. 

But the Federal army, instead of dividing, united for the 
purpose of attacking our forces. Johnston thereupon ordered 
another retreat (May 19th) beyond Etowah. 

The next stand of our army was at Allatoona, in the Etowah 
Mountains, south of the river of that name; but the rapid 
extension of the Federal army, threatening Marietta, was 
deemed to necessitate the evacuation of that strong position. 

Engagements with the enemy at New Hope Church 
(May 27th and 28th), although distinguished by many acts of 
gallantry, did not result in any advantage to our army. 

Falling back slowly. General Johnston made his next 
stand in that mountainous country that lies between Acworth 
and Marietta. Here the greatest blow to the country that 
had been felt since Albert Sidney Johnston fell at Shiloh, and 
Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, was experienced, in the 
death of that noble Christian and soldier, General Polk. On 
June 14th he was killed by a shot from a Federal battery on 
Pine Mountain, as he was reconnoitring near the Confederate 
outposts. 

On June i8th, heavy rain having so swollen Nose's Creek as 
to render it impassable, the Federal army, under cover of 
this stream, extended its lines several miles beyond Johnston's 
left flank, causing a further retrograde movement by a portion 
of his force. For several days brisk fighting occurred at various 
points of our line. A cavalry attack on Wheeler's cavalry on 
the 20th, and a general assault on the Confederate position 
on the 27th, were handsomely repulsed. On July 5th General 
Johnston deemed it necessary to abandon his position at 
Kenesaw ; and on the 9th, General Sherman having thrown 
two corps across the Chattahoochee on the previous day, 
the Confederate army crossed that river and established 
itself two miles in the rear. 



422 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Thus from Dalton to Resaca, from Resaca to Adairsville, 
from Adairsville to Allatoona (involving by the evacuation 
of Kingston the loss of Rome, with its valuable mills, foun- 
dries, and large quantities of military stores), from Allatoona 
to Kenesavv, from Kenesaw to the Chattahoochee, and then 
to Atlanta — retreat followed retreat during seventy-four 
days of anxious hope and bitter disappointment, until at 
last the Army of Tennessee fell back within the fortifications 
of Atlanta. The Federal army soon occupied the arc of a 
circle extending from the railroad between Atlanta and the 
Chattahoochee River to some miles south of the Georgia Rail- 
road (from Atlanta to Augusta) in a direction north and north- 
east of Atlanta. We had suffered a disastrous loss of territory. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 423 



CHAPTER LXIX. 

FALL OF ATLANTA. 

When it became known that our army had been driven 
from one strong position to another, until finally it had 
reached the earthworks of the exterior defence of Atlanta, the 
popular disappointment was extreme, and from many quar- 
ters came petitions, letters, and delegations, urging me to re- 
move General Johnston, and put someone in command who 
would resolutely hold Atlanta, and the railroads, threatened 
with destruction, on which we mainly depended for indispen- 
sable supplies for the armies then fighting the main battles 
of the war in Virginia. These demands came from many who 
had urged his appointment. While sharing the disappoint- 
ment that pervaded the whole country at General John- 
ston's failures, and more keenly conscious of the disasters 
likely to result from them— because I was in a position to 
estimate more accurately their probable extent— I resisted 
the clamors that had steadily increased with each succes- 
sive retreat from Dalton to Atlanta, because conscious of 
the danger of a change of commanders in the presence of the 
enemy. I only issued the order to revoke his assignment 
after I became satisfied that his declared purpose to occupy 
the works of Atlanta with militia levies, and withdraw his 
army into the open country for freer operations, would event- 
ually result in the loss of Atlanta, in which event it was im- 
possible to foretell where the retreat would cease. I gave my 
permission to issue the order relieving General Johnston, and 
directing him to turn over his force to General Hood, in die 
hope that the impending danger of the loss of Atlanta might 

be averted. tt 

General Hood assumed command on July ibth. tie le- 
ported that the effective strength of his force on that day was 
48,750 men of all arms. 



424 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Feeling that the only chance of holding Atlanta consisted 
in assuming the offensive by forcing the enemy to accept bat- 
tle, General Hood determined, on July 20th, to attack the 
corps of Generals Thomas and Schofield, who were in the act 
of crossing Peachtree Creek, hoping to defeat Thomas before 
he could fortify himself, then to fall on Schofield, and finally 
to attack McPherson's corps, which had reached Decatur, on 
the Georgia Railroad, driving the enemy back to the creek 
and into the narrow space included between that stream and 
the Chattahoochee River. Owing to a misapprehension of the 
order of battle, and consequent delay in making the attack, 
the movement failed. On the 21st, finding that McPherson's 
corps was threatening his communications, General Hood 
resolved to attack him at or near Decatur, in front and on 
flank, turn his left, and then, following up the movement 
from the right to the left with his whole army, force the 
enemy down Peachtree Creek. This engagement was the 
hottest of the campaign, but it failed to accomplish any other 
favorable result than to check McPherson's movement on the 
communications of our army, while it cost heavily in the loss 
of many of^cers and men. 

Beyond expeditions by the enemy, for the most part by 
cavalry, to destroy the lines of railroad by which supplies and 
reinforcements could reach Atlanta, and successful efforts on 
our part to frustrate their movements, resulting in the defeat 
and capture of General Stoneman and his command near Ma- 
con, the utter destruction of the enemy's cavalry force engaged 
by General Wheeler at Newnan, and the defeat of Sherman's 
design to unite his cavalry at the Macon & Western Rail- 
road, and effectually destroy that essential avenue for the 
conveyance of stores and ammunition for our army, no move- 
ment of special importance took place between July 22d and 
August 26th, at which latter date it was discovered that 
Sherman had abandoned his works upon our right, and, leav- 
ing a considerable force to hold his intrenched position at 
the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee, was marching his 
main body to the south and southwest of Atlanta, to use it, 
as he himself has expressed it, "against the communications 
of Atlanta, instead of against its intrenchments." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 425 

On the 30th, it being known that he was moving on Jones- 
boro, the county town of Clayton County, about twenty 
miles south of Atlanta, General Hood sent two corps under 
Hardee, in the hope that he could drive him across Flint 
River, oblige him to abandon his works on the left, and then 
be able to attack him successfully in flank. The attack at 
Jonesboro was unsuccessful. Hardee was obliged, on Sep- 
tember 1st, to fall back to Lovejoy's, seven miles south of 
Jonesboro, on the Macon & Western Railroad. 

Thus, the main body of the Federal army was between 
Hardee and Atlanta, and the immediate evacuation of that 
city became a necessity. There was an additional and cogent 
reason for that movement. Owing to the obstinately cruel 
policy which the United States Government had pursued for 
some time, of refusing on any terms to exchange prisoners of 
war, upward of thirty thousand prisoners were at Anderson- 
ville in Southwestern Georgia at this time. To guard against 
the release and arming of these prisoners, General Hood 
thought it necessary to place our army between them and the 
enemy, and abandon the project, which he thought feasible, 
of moving on Sherman's communications and destroying his 
depots of supplies at Marietta. 



426 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXX. 

HOOD'S CAMPAIGN FROM ATLANTA TO NASHVILLE. 

Upon abandoning Atlanta, Hood marched his army in a 
westerly direction, and formed a junction with the two corps 
which had been operating at Jonesboro and Lovejoy's under 
Hardee. 

Sherman, desisting from any further aggressive movement 
in the field, returned to Atlanta, which had been formally 
surrendered by the Mayor on September 2d, with the prom- 
ise, as reported, on the part of the Federal commander, that 
non-combatants and private property should be respected. 
Shortly after his arrival, the commanding general of the Fed- 
eral forces, regardless of this promise, and on the pretence that 
the exigencies of the service required that the place should be 
used exclusively for military purposes, issued an order direct- 
ing all civilians living in Atlanta, male and female, to leave 
the city within five days from the date of the order (Septem- 
ber 5th). 

Since Alva's atrocious cruelties to the non-combatant 
population of the Low Countries, in the sixteenth century, the 
history of war records no instance of such barbarous cruelty 
as that which this order designed to perpetrate. It involved 
the immediate expulsion from their homes and only means of 
subsistence of thousands of unoffending women and children, 
whose husbands and fathers were either in the army, in North- 
ern prisons, or had died in battle. In vain were appeals made 
to Sherman by the civil authorities to revoke or modify this 
inhuman order. His reply was, " I give full credit to your 
statements of the distress that will be occasioned by it, and 
yet I shall not revoke my order, because my orders are not 
designed to meet the humanities of the case." 

At the time appointed the women and children were ex- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 427 

pelled from their homes ; and before they were passed within 
our lines complaint was generally made that the Federal of- 
ficers and men who were sent to guard them had robbed them 
of the few articles of value they had been permitted to take 
from their homes. Thus the order was executed with a cow- 
ardly dishonesty in perfect harmony with its temper and 
spirit. 

During September the Federal army made no movements 
beyond strengthening the defences of Atlanta and collecting 
within it large quantities of military supplies. Hood held his 
troops near Jonesboro. With a view to judge better of the 
situation, and then determine the best course to pursue, I vis- 
ited General Hood's headquarters at Palmetto. The crisis 
was grave. It was not to be expected that Sherman would 
remain long inactive. His movements indicated that he con- 
templated a movement farther south, making Atlanta a sec- 
ondary base. To rescue Georgia, save the Gulf States, and 
keep possession of the lines of our supplies, it became neces- 
sary that the lines of railroad in Sherman's rear should be 
effectually torn up, the Bridgeport railroad bridge destroyed, 
and the communications between Atlanta, Chattanooga, and 
Nashville completely cut off. If this could be done, all the 
fruits of Sherman's successful campaign in Georgia would be 
blighted, his capture of Atlanta would become a barren vic- 
tory, and he would probably be compelled to retreat toward 
Tennessee, at every mile of which he might be harassed by 
our army. Or if, on the other hand, relying on Atlanta as a 
base, he should push forward through Georgia to the Atlan- 
tic coast, our army, having cut his communications north of 
Atlanta, could fall upon his rear, and with our better knowl- 
edge of the country and the devotion of the surrounding pop- 
ulation, and our superiority in cavalry, it was not unreason- 
able to hope that retributive justice might overtake the ruth- 
less invader. 

After I had conferred with prominent citizens of Georgia, 
with Generals Hardee, Cobb, and Beauregard, and a plan of 
campaign had been adopted, General Hood moved upon the 
enemy's line of communication. His successes at Big Shanty 
and Acworth, in capturing those stations and thoroughly de- 



428 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

stroying the railroad between them, and his partial success at 
Allatoona, caused Sherman, leaving one corps to garrison At- 
lanta, to move out with his main body to restore his commu- 
nications. Hood further succeeded in destroying the railroad 
from Resaca to Tunnel Hill, capturing the enemy's posts at 
Tilton, Dalton, and Mill-Creek Gap. Not deeming his army 
in a condition to risk a general engagement. Hood withdrew 
his forces toward Gadsden, which he reached October 20th, and 
where he found supplies adequate for the wants of his troops. 
Sherman had returned to Atlanta, and Hood, instead of hang- 
ing on his rear, and not allowing him to repair the damage to 
the railroad, and otherwise harassing him in his march, after 
conference with General Beauregard decided to continue his 
march into Tennessee, supposing that thus he could force 
Sherman to follow him beyond the limits of Georgia. 

After overcoming many vexatious detentions, General 
Hood, on November 20th, crossed the Tennessee River at 
Gunter's Landing, and moved forward on the route to Nash- 
ville, where General Sherman had sent General Thomas for 
the protection of his depots and communications against an 
apprehended attack by cavalry under Forrest. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 429 



CHAPTER LXXI. 

SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. 

Thomas having been sufficiently reinforced in Tennessee 
to enable him to hold Hood in check, Sherman, thus relieved 
from the necessity of defending himself against an active 
army and protecting a long line of railroad communication 
with a fortified line in his rear, resolved upon his march to 
the sea, abandoning Atlanta, after having first utterly destroyed 
that city by fire. Not a house was spared, not even a church. 
Similar acts of vandalism marked the progress of the Federal 
army at Rome, Kingston, Acworth, Marietta, and every town 
or village along the route, thus carrying out General Sher- 
man's order " to enforce a devastation more or less relentless " 
along the line of his march, where he only encountered help- 
less women and children. The arson of the dwelling-houses 
of non-combatants, and the robbery of their property, extend- 
ing even to the trinkets worn by women, made the devastation 
as relentless as savage instincts could suggest. 

On November i6th Sherman left his intrenchments around 
Atlanta, and dividing his army into two bodies, each from 
25,000 to 30,000 strong, the one followed the Georgia 
Railroad in the direction of Augusta, and the other took 
the line of the Macon & Western Railroad to Jonesboro. 
Avoiding Macon and Augusta, they passed through central 
Georgia, taking Milledgeville on the way, marching in compact 
column, and advancing with extreme caution, although only 
opposed by detachments of Wheeler's cavalry and a few 
hastily formed regiments of raw militia. Partial efforts were 
made to obstruct and destroy the roads in the front and on the 
flanks of the invading army, and patriotic appeals by promi- 
nent citizens were made to the people to remove all provisions 
from its path ; but no formidable opposition was made except 



/ 



430 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

at the railroad bridge over the Oconee, where Wheeler, with a 
portion of his command and a few militia, held the enemy in 
check for two or three days. With his small force Wheeler 
daringly and persistently harassed and, when practicable, de- 
layed the enemy's advance, attacking and defeating exposed 
detachments, deterring his foragers from venturing far from 
the main body, defending all cities and towns along the rail- 
road lines, and affording protection to depots of supplies, 
arsenals, and other important government works. The report 
of his operations from November 14th to December 20th 
displays a dash, activity, vigilance, and consummate skill which 
justly entitles him to a prominent place on the roll of great 
cavalry leaders. By his indomitable energy, operating on 
all sides of Sherman's columns, he was enabled to keep the 
Government advised of the enemy's movements ; and by pre- 
venting foraging parties from leaving the main body, he saved 
from spoliation all but a narrow tract of country, and from the 
torch millions' worth of property which would otherwise have 
been certainly consumed. 

It soon became manifest that Savannah was Sherman's 
objective point. That city was occupied by General W. J. 
Hardee, with about 18,000 men, a considerable portion of 
whom were militia, local troops, reserves, and hastily or- 
ganized regiments and battalions made up of convalescents 
from the hospitals and artisans from the Government 
shops. 

On December loth the enemy's columns reached the 
immediate vicinity of Savannah, and on the 12th they 
occupied a semicircular line extending from the Savannah 
River to the Savannah & Gulf Railroad. The defences of 
the city were strong ; the earthworks and other fortifications 
were flanked by inundated rice swamps extending across 
the peninsula formed by the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers ; 
and the causeways leading through them were well fortified 
by works mounting heavy guns. With a sufficient force to 
occupy his long lines of defence. General Hardee could have 
sustained a protracted siege. The city was amply supplied, 
and its lines of communication were still open. Although 
Sherman had reached Savannah he had not yet opened 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 431 

communication with the Federal fleet. Fort McAlHster 
situated on the right side of the Ogeechee, about six miles 
from Ossabaw Sound, was a serious obstacle in his way, as it 
was a work of considerable strength, mounting twenty-one 
heavy guns, with a deep and wide ditch extending along its 
front, and every avenue of approach swept by the guns 
mounted upon its bastions. The fort was held by a garrison of 
250 men, under the command of experienced ofificers. The 
work was attacked on the evening of the 13th, and carried by 
assault after a short and feeble resistance. Having obtained 
possession of the fort, Sherman speedily opened communication 
with the fleet, and became perfectly secure against any future 
want of supplies. The fleet also enabled him to obtain heavy 
ordnance for use against the city. He proceeded immediately 
to take measures to invest Savannah, and in a few days had 
succeeded in doing so on every side of the city except that 
fronting the river. While Hardee's troops had not yielded a 
single position or lost a foot of ground, with the exception of 
Fort McAllister, he discovered, on December 20th, that Sher- 
man had put heavy siege guns in position near enough to 
bombard the city, and that the enemy was threatening Union 
Causeway, which runs across the large swamps that lie 
between Savannah and Charleston, and offered the only 
practicable line of retreat. He determined therefore, to 
evacuate the city rather than expose it and its inhabitants to 
bombardment. He also thought that holding it had ceased 
to be of any special importance, and that his troops could do 
more valuable service in the field. Accordingly, on the night 
of December 20th, having destroyed the navy-yard and other 
Government property, and razed the fortifications below the 
city, he withdrew his army and reached Hardeeville on the 
evening of the 22d, without hindrance or molestation on 
the part of the enemy. 

Let us now return to follow the fortunes of General Hood. 
Owing to an accidental delay in the transmission of orders. 
General Hood, who had not cavalry enough to protect his 
trains, was obliged to wait three weeks at Florence for the 
coming of Forrest. This unfortunate delay gave the enemy 
time to repair the railroad to Chattanooga, and to accumulate 



432 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

supplies at Atlanta for the march to the Atlantic coast. 
Forrest's cavalry joined on the 2ist of November, and the 
movement began. The enemy's forces were concentrated at 
Pulaski and Lawrenceburg. Hood tried to place his army 
between these forces and Nashville, but our cavalry, having 
driven off the enemy at Lawrenceburg, gave notice of our 
advance, and on the 23d he evacuated Pulaski and moved 
rapidly by the turnpike and railroad to Columbia. On the 
evening of November 27th our army took position in front 
of the works at that place. During the night the town was 
evacuated, and a strong position was taken on the opposite 
side of the river, about a mile and a half distant. 

On the evening of the 28th General Forrest crossed Duck 
River a few miles above Columbia, and in the morning of the 
29th Stewart's and Cheatham's corps followed, leaving Gen- 
eral Stephen D. Lee's corps confronting the enemy at Colum- 
bia. The cavalry and the two infantry corps moved in light 
marching order, the object being, by advancing rapidly on 
roads parallel to the Columbia and Franklin turnpike, at or 
near Spring Hill, to cut off that portion of the foe at Colum- 
bia. The movement having been discovered after Hood's 
forces had got well on the flank of the enemy, he began to 
retreat along the turnpike toward Spring Hill. About noon 
of that day the cavalry attacked his trains, but found them 
too strongly guarded to be captured. The retreat was rapidly 
conducted along the turnpike, with flankers thrown out to 
protect the main column. About two miles from Spring Hill 
General Cheatham commenced to come in contact with the 
retreating column. He was ordered to attack vigorously, and 
get possession of the turnpike. This order was so feebly exe- 
cuted that it failed, and the enemy passed on toward Spring 
Hill. Though the golden opportunity had passed with day- 
light, Hood did not abandon the hope of effecting by a night 
movement the end he sought. Accordingly, General Stewart 
was ordered to move his corps beyond Cheatham's, and place 
it across the road beyond Spring Hill. In the dark and 
confusion he did not succeed in getting the position desired. 
About midnight, ascertaining that the enemy was moving in 
disorder, with artillery, wagons, and troops intermixed, Hood 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 433; 

sent instructions to General Cheatham to advance a heavy 
line of skirmishers, still further to impede the retreat. " This 
was not accomplished. The enemy continued to move along 
the road in hurry and confusion nearly all the night. Thus 
was lost a great opportunity for striking him for which we 
had labored so long— the greatest this campaign had offered, 
and one of the greatest during the war. General S. D. Lee,' 
left in front of the enemy at Columbia, was instructed to press 
him the moment he abandoned his position at that point. He 
did not abandon his works until dark, showing that his trains 
obstructed the road for fifteen miles during the day and a 
great part of the night." At daylight Hood pursued the 
enemy so rapidly as to compel him to burn a number of his 
wagons. On the hills about four miles south of Franklin he 
made demonstrations as if to give battle, but when our forces 
deployed for the attack he retired to Franklin. 

From despatches captured at Spring Hill, Hood learned 
that Schofield was instructed by Thomas to hold that posi- 
tion until Franklin could be made secure, and thus knew that 
it was important to attack Schofield promptly, and concluded 
that, if he should escape at Franklin, he would gain the forti- 
fications about Nashville. Hood reports that " the nature of 
the position was such as to render it inexpedient to attempt 
any other flank movement, and I therefore determined to 
attack him in front and without delay." 

On November 30th he formed his line of battle. At 4 
P.M. he gave the order to advance ; his troops moved gallantly 
forward, carried the first line, and advanced against the in- 
terior works ; here the engagement was close and fierce ; the 
combatants occupied the opposite sides of the intrenchments, 
our men carrying them in some places, many being killed 
entirely inside the enemy's works. Some of the Tennesseeans, 
after years of absence, saw again their homes, and strove with 
desperation to expel the invader from them. The contest 
continued till near midnight, when the enemy abandoned his 
works and crossed the river, leaving his dead and wounded 
behind him. We had won a victory, but it was purchased at 
fearful cost. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. 
General Hood reported his loss at about 4,500» and among 
28 



434 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

them were Generals Cleburne, Gist, John Adams, Strahl, and 
Granberry, whose loss we could ill afford. Around Cleburne 
thickly lay the gallant men who, in his desperate assault, 
followed him with the implicit confidence that, in another 
army, was given to Stonewall Jackson ; and, in the one case as 
in the other, a vacancy was created which could never be filled. 
The dead left by the enemy indicated that his loss was equal 
to our own. Those of our men who were captured were in- 
side the enemy's works. 

The next morning at daylight, the wounded being cared 
for and the dead buried, Hood moved forward toward Nash- 
ville, about eighteen miles distant. Forrest with his cavalry 
closely pursued the enemy. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 435 



CHAPTER LXXII. 

THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 

On the 2d of December our army took position in front 
of Nashville, about two miles from the city, Lee's corps in 
the centre resting on the Franklin turnpike, Cheatham's on 
the right, Stewart's on the left, and the cavalry on each flank. 
Hood then commenced to construct detached works to cover 
the flanks. 

Nothing of importance occurred until the morning of the 
15th, when the enemy, having been reinforced by about 15,000 
men from the trans-Mississippi country, attacked simultane- 
ously both flanks of our line. On our right he was repulsed 
with heavy loss, but on our left, toward evening, he carried 
some of our partially completed redoubts. During the night 
of the 15th our line was shortened and strengthened. Cheat- 
ham's corps was transferred from our right to our left. Early 
on the i6th the enemy made a general attack on our lines, ac- 
companied by a heavy fire of artillery. All his assaults were 
repulsed with heavy loss until 3.30 P.M., when a portion of 
our line to the left of the centre suddenly gave way. 

Up to this time no battle ever progressed more favorably 
— the troops in excellent spirits, waving their colors, and bid- 
ding defiance to the enemy; but the position he then gained 
being such as to enfilade us, caused our entire line to give way 
in a few moments, and our troops to retreat in the direction 
of Franklin, most of them in great confusion. Our loss in 
killed and wounded, however, was small. 

During the 17th the enemy's cavalry pressed boldly on the 
retreating column, the open character of the country bemg 
favorable to cavalry operations. The retreat continued, and on 
the 25th, 26th, and 27th the army crossed the Tennessee River 



436 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE J || 

at Bainbridge. After crossing the river the army moved by 
easy stages to Tupelo, Miss. 

General Hood reported his losses in the Tennessee cam- 
paign to have been about 10,000, including prisoners, and 
when he arrived at Tupelo he had 18,500 infantry and artillery, 
and 2,306 cavalry. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 437 



CHAPTER LXXIII. 

EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 

That we of the Confederate States should dare to resort 
to arms for the preservation of our rights, and to" secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," was re- 
garded as most improbable by the Government of the United 
States. The true character and intentions of that Govern- 
ment were clearly exposed in the treatment of the question of 
the exchange of prisoners. Their aspirations for dominion and 
sovereignty, through the Government of the Union, had be- 
come so deep-seated as to cause that Government, at its first 
step, to assume the haughtiness and imperiousness of an abso- 
lute sovereign. The term " loyal," or its opposite, has no sig- 
nification except as applied to the sovereign of an empire or 
kingdom. To say, therefore, that the agent of the sovereign 
people, the representative of the system they have organized 
to conduct their common affairs, composed the real sovereign, 
and that loyalty or disloyalty was of signification or relation to 
that sovereign alone, was an error that led straight to the sub- 
version of all popular Government, and the establishment of 
the monarchial or consolidated form. The Government of the 
United States, said President Lincoln (in his proclamation 
calling for 75,000 men), is now the sovereign here, and loyalty 
consists in the maintenance of that sovereignty against its 
foes. The sovereignty of the people and of the several and 
distinct States, in his mind, was only a weakness and an en- 
thusiasm of the fathers. The States and the people thereof 
had become consolidated into a National Union. " I ap- 
peal," he said, "to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and 
aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the 
existence of our National Union." 

The Confederate States not only refused to aid this effort. 



438 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

but took up arms to defeat the consummation of such a mon- 
strous usurpation. It was evident that, if no efforts for a res- 
cue were made, the time would come when the rights of all 
the States might be denied, and the hope of mankind in con- 
stitutional freedom be forever lost. This was usurpation. 
This lay at the foundation of the war. Every subsequent act 
tended palpably to supremacy for the Federal Government, 
the subjugation of the States, and the submission of the 
people. 

That we dared to draw our swords to vindicate the rights 
and sovereignty of the people, and to resist and deny all sov- 
ereignty as inherently existing in the Government of the 
United States, was adjudged an infamous crime, and we were 
denounced as " rebels." It was asserted that those of us 
" who were captured should be hung as rebels taken in the act." 
Crushing the corner-stone of the Union, the independence 
of the States, the Federal Government assumed toward us a 
position of haughty arrogance, refusing to recognize us other- 
wise than as insurrectionists and " rebels," who resisted and 
denied its usurped sovereignty, and who were entitled to no 
amelioration from the punishment of death except such as 
might proceed only from the promptings of mercy. 

In April, 1861, I issued a proclamation offering to grant 
letters of marque and reprisal to seamen. Two days after- 
ward President Lincoln issued a counter-proclamation, de- 
claring that, " if any person, under the pretended authority of 
said States, or under any other pretence, should molest a ves- 
sel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of 
her, such person shall be held amenable to the laws of the 
United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy," 
which was death. 

Some small vessels obtained these letters of marque, and 
were captured. The crews were the first prisoners that fell 
into the hands of the enemy. They were imprisoned, and 
held for trial as pirates. 

As soon as the treatment of these prisoners was known in 
Richmond, as early as July 6, 1861, I sent a special mes- 
senger to President Lincoln, with a communication in which, 
after quoting the uncontradicted statements that had been 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 439 

published respecting these prisoners, I announced the pohcy 
of the Confederate Government in case the threats made 
against them were carried out. I said : 

" It is the desire of this Government so to conduct the 
war now existing as to mitigate its horrors as far as may be 
possible, and, with this intent, its treatment of the prisoners 
captured by its forces has been marked by the greatest hu- 
manity and leniency consistent with public obligation. Some 
have been permitted to return home on parole, others to re- 
main at large, under similar conditions, within this Confed- 
eracy, and all have been furnished with rations for their sub- 
sistence, such as are allowed to our own troops. It is only 
since the news has been received of the treatment of the 
prisoners taken on the Savannah that I have been compelled 
to withdraw these indulgences, and to hold the prisoners 
taken by us in strict confinement. 

" A just regard to humanity and to the honor of this 
Government now requires me to state explicitly that, pain- 
ful as will be the necessity, this Government will deal out to 
the prisoners held by it the same treatment and the same 
fate as shall be experienced by those captured on the Savan- 
nah ; and, if driven to the terrible necessity of retaliation by 
your execution of any of the officers or crew of the SavannaJi, 
that retaliation will be extended so far as shall be requisite to 
secure the abandonment of a practice unknown to the warfare 
of civilized man, and so barbarous as to disgrace the nation 
which shall be guilty of inaugurating it. With this view, and 
because it may not have reached you, I now renew the prop- 
osition made to the commander of the blockading squadron, 
to exchange for the prisoners taken on the 'Savannah an 
equal number of those now held by us, according to rank." 

The bearer of this communication, Colonel Thomas Tay- 
lor, was denied an audience, and was obliged to content him- 
self with a verbal reply from General Scott that President 
Lincoln had received the communication and would reply in 
writing. No letter ever came. We were therefore compelled 
to select by lot from among the prisoners in our hands a 
number to whom we proposed to mete out the same fate 
which might await the crew of the Savannah. 



440 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

These measures of retaliation arrested the cruel and illegal 
purposes of the enemy. 

Meanwhile (in May, 1861) the Confederate Congress had 
passed an act directing the transfer of all prisoners of war to 
the War Department by their captors, and enacting that the 
rations to be furnished to prisoners " shall be the same in 
quantity and quality as those furnished to enlisted men in the 
army of the Confederacy." 

This law was embodied in orders issued from the De- 
partment and from the headquarters in the field, and no order 
was ever issued in conflict with its humane provisions. 

Nevertheless, the Government of the United States stub- 
bornly refused all consideration of the question of exchange 
of prisoners, or to accept any interchange of courtesy. An 
exchange was occasionally made by the various commanders 
in the field, under the paltry pretence that the Federal Gov- 
ernment knew nothing of it. We released numbers at differ- 
ent points on parole, and the matter was compromised in va- 
rious ways. On September 3d an exchange was made by 
General Pillow and Colonel Wallace of the United States 
Army. On October 23d a similar exchange was made be- 
tween General McClernand and General Polk. Subse- 
quently, in November, General Grant offered to surrender to 
General Polk certain wounded men and invalids uncondi- 
tionally. On November ist General Fremont made an 
agreement with General Price, in Missouri, by which certain 
persons named were authorized to negotiate for the exchange 
of any persons who might be taken prisoners of war, upon a 
plan previously arranged. General Hunter succeeded him, 
and he repudiated Fremont's agreement. 

A proposition was made in the Confederate Congress to 
return without any formality whatever the Federal prisoners 
captured at Manassas. But for the difficulty in reference to 
the crew of the SavannaJi it would doubtless have prevailed. 

But the determination of the Federal Government not to 
meet us on an equal footing was shaken by the clamor of the 
Northern people for a restoration of their friends, and both 
Houses of Congress united in a request that the President 
should take immediate steps for a general exchange. The 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 441 

President, however, instead of complying with the request 
appointed two respectable commissioners to visit the prisoners 
we held, and provide for their comfort at the expense of the 
United States. The commissioners arrived at Norfolk, Va. 
but were not allowed to proceed any farther. A readiness to 
negotiate for a general exchange was manifested on our part, 
and our proposals were agreed to by them, and subsequently 
approved at Washington. Soon afterward an arrangement 
Avas made between General Howell Cobb, on our part, and 
General Wool, the commander at Fortress Monroe, by which 
the prisoners on both sides were to be exchanged, man for 
man, the of^cers to be assimilated as to rank. The privateers- 
men were to be exchanged on the footing of prisoners of war. 
Any surplus remaining on either side were to be released ; and 
during the continuance of hostilities prisoners on either side 
were to be paroled. 

The exchange proceeded, and about 300 in excess had 
been delivered by us when it was discovered that not one of 
our privateersmen had been released, and that our men taken 
prisoners at Fort Donelson, instead of being paroled, had 
been sent into the interior. Some of the hostages we held 
for our privateers had gone forward, but the remainder were 
retained. Being informed of this state of affairs I recom- 
mended to Congress that all of our men who had been paroled 
by the United States Government should be released from 
the obligations of their parole, so as to bear arms in our de- 
fence, in consequence of this breach of good faith on the part 
of that Government. 

The only unadjusted point between Generals Cobb and 
Wool was that the latter was unwilling that each party should 
agree to pay the expenses of transporting their prisoners to 
the frontier, and this he promised to refer to his Government. 
At a second interview General Wool said that his Govern- 
ment would not consent to pay these expenses, and thereupon 
General Cobb agreed to the terms proposed by the other side. 
General Wool now stated that his Government had changed 
his instructions. Thus the negotiations were abruptly broken 
off, and the matter was left where it was before. 

After these negotiations had begun, the capture of Forts 



442 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Henry and Donelson had given to the United States a con- 
siderable preponderance in the number of prisoners held by 
them, and they immediately returned to their original purpose 
of unequal treatment. 

A suspension of exchanges for some months followed. 
Finally, a storm of indignation beginning to arise among the 
Northern people at the conduct of their Government, it was 
forced to yield its absurd pretensions, and on July 22, 1862, a 
cartel for the exchange of prisoners was executed. The ex- 
changes were immediately renewed, and by the middle of 
August most of the ofificers of rank on either side who had 
been for any long period in captivity were released. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 443 



CHAPTER LXXIV. 

FEDERAL BARBARITIES, AND THREATENED RETALIATION. 

On the same day on which the cartel was signed an order 
was issued by the Federal Secretary of War, empowering the 
military commanders " to seize and use any property, real or 
personal, which may be necessary or convenient for their sev- 
eral commands for supplies or for other military purposes," 
and " to keep accounts sufficiently accurate and in detail to 
show quantities and amounts, and from whom it shall come, 
as a basis upon which compensation can be made in proper 
cases." This was simply a system of plunder, for no compen- 
sation would be made to any person unless he could prove his 
fidelity to the Government of the United States. 

On the next day General Pope, in command of the Fed- 
eral forces near Washington, issued a general order directing 
the murder of our peaceful citizens as spies, if found quietly 
tilling the land in his rear, even outside of his lines; and one 
of his brigadier-generals seized innocent and peaceful in- 
habitants to be held as hostages, to the end that they might 
be murdered in cold blood if any of his soldiers were killed 
by some unknown persons whom he designated as "bush- 
whackers." Upon this state of facts I issued a general order 
recognizing General Pope and his commissioned ofificers to be 
in the position they had chosen for themselves— that of rob- 
bers and murderers, not that of public enemies, entitled, 
if captured, to be treated as prisoners of war. Some of the 
military authorities of the United States seemed to suppose 
that better success would attend a savage war, in which no 
quarter Avas to be given, and no age or sex spared, than 
had hitherto been secured by such hostilities as were alone 
recognized to be lawful by civilized men. We renounced 
our right of retaliation on the innocent, and continued to 



444 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

treat the soldiers of Pope's army as prisoners of war, con- 
fining our repressive measures to the punishment only of such 
commissioned ofificers as were willing participants in such 
crimes. Pope was soon afterward removed from command. 

In August a letter involving similar principles was ad- 
dressed by General Lee to the commanding General at Wash- 
ington, General Halleck, making inquiries as to the truth of 
the case of William B. Mumford, reported to have been mur- 
dered at New Orleans by order of General Butler ; and of 
Colonel Owens, reported to have been murdered in Missouri 
by order of General Pope. I had also been credibly informed 
that many other Federal officers within the Confederacy had 
been guilty of felonies and capital offences. It was announced 
that General Hunter had armed slaves for the murder of 
their masters, and had thus done all in his power to inaugu- 
rate a servile war. He had boasted in June that he hoped to 
organize before winter " from 48,000 to 50,000 of these hardy 
and devoted soldiers." General Phelps had imitated at New 
Orleans the example of Hunter in South Carolina. General 
G. N. Fitch was stated, in the public journals, to have mur- 
dered in cold blood two peaceful citizens, because one of his 
men, while invading our country, was killed by some un- 
known person while defending his home. 

General Lee was directed by me to say that if a reply was 
not received in fifteen days, it would be assumed that the 
alleged facts were true, and that on the United States Gov- 
ernment would rest the responsibility of retaliatory meas- 
ures. General Halleck declined to receive the papers because 
"couched in language insulting to the Government of the 
United States." 

On August, 20, 1862, I issued an order threatening retal- 
iation for the lives of peaceful citizens reported to have been 
executed by General Fitch. The report was subsequently 
found to be untrue, and on the next day I issued another order, 
which, after reciting the principal facts, directed that Generals 
Hunter and Phelps should be treated no longer as public en- 
emies, but as outlaws, and that in the event of the capture of 
either of them, or of any other commissioned of^cer employed 
in drilling, organizing, or instructing slaves, with a view to 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 445 

their armed service in the war, he should not be regarded as 
a prisoner of war, but should be held in close confinement for 
execution as a felon, at such time and place as might be or- 
dered. 

In the case of Mumford a letter dated August 7, 1862, was 
received from General Halleck stating that " no authentic in- 
formation had been received in relation to" his execution, 
"but measures will be immediately taken to ascertain the 
facts." Subsequently, on November 25, 1862, our Commis- 
sioner of Exchange notified the Federal agent that if no an- 
swer was received within fifteen days it would be considered 
that an answer was declined. No answer was received at the 
expiration of the limit thus indicated. Besides, I had received 
evidence that said Mumford was publicly executed in cold 
blood, by hanging, after the occupation of New Orleans by 
the forces under General Butler, and for no offence ever al- 
leged to have been committed subsequent to the occupation 
of the city. 

It appeared that the silence of the Federal Government, 
and its maintenance of Butler in high office under its author- 
ity, afforded evidence too conclusive that it sanctioned his 
conduct, and was determined that he should remain unpun- 
ished for these crimes. 

I therefore pronounced and declared the said Butler a 
felon, deserving capital punishment, and ordered that he be 
no longer considered as a public enemy of the Confederate 
States, but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind, 
and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in command 
should cause him to be immediately executed by hanging. 

These measures of retaliation were in conformity with the 
usages of war, and were adopted to punish and check the cru- 
elties of our adversary. 

At length so many difficulties were raised, and so many 
complaints made, in the execution of the cartel, that, for the 
sake of the unfortunate prisoners, I resolved to seek an ad- 
justment through the authorities of Washington. 



446 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXXV. 

MISSION OF VICE-PRESIDENT STEPHENS. 

Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, 
offered his services as Commissioner. 

He was furnished with two letters of authority, identical 
in terms, but the first signed by me as Commander-in-Chief 
of the land and naval forces of the Confederate States, and 
addressed to Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief of the 
land and naval forces of the United States, and the duplicate 
addressed to him as President and signed by me as President. 
In Mr. Stephens's letter of instructions I stated : "You will 
perceive from the terms of the letter [of authority] that it is 
so worded as to avoid any political difficulties in its recep- 
tion. Intended exclusively as one of those communications 
between belligerents which public law recognizes as necessary 
and proper between hostile forces, care has been taken to af- 
ford no pretext for refusing to receive it on the ground that 
it would involve a tacit recognition of the independence of the 
Confederacy. Your mission is simply one of humanity, and 
has no political aspect. 

" If objection is made to receiving your letter on the 
ground that it is not addressed to Abraham Lincoln as Presi- 
dent, instead of Commander-in-Chief, etc., then you will pre- 
sent the duplicate addressed to him as President and signed 
by me as President. To this latter, objection may be made 
on the ground that I am not recognized as President of the 
Confederacy. In this event you will decline any further at- 
tempt to confer on the subject of your mission, as such con- 
ference is admissible only on the footing of perfect equality." 

Mr. Stephens was authorized to arrange and settle all dif- 
ferences and disputes that had arisen, or might arise, in the ex- 
ecution of the cartel for the exchange of prisoners of war ; to 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 447 

agree to all just modifications that might be found necessary 
to prevent future misunderstandings ; and finally, to enter into 
such arrangement about the mode of carrying on hostilities as 
should confine the severities of the war within such limits as 
are rightfully imposed not only by modern civilization, but by 
our common Christianity. 

On July 3, 1863, Mr. Stephens proceeded to Newport 
News, where his progress was arrested by the orders of the 
Admiral of the enemy's f^eet. The object of Mr. Stephens's 
mission, with a request for permission to go to Washington, 
was communicated to the Government there, and the reply 
transmitted by telegraph was : 

" The request is inadmissible. The customary agents and 
channels are adequate for all needful military communications 
and conference between the United States forces and the in- 
surgents." 

This was all the notice ever taken of our humane propo- 
sition. The door was shut in our faces. 

From the date of the cartel, July 22, 1862, until the sum- 
mer of 1863 we had an excess of prisoners. During the inter- 
val the deliveries were made as fast as the enemy furnished 
transportation. On more than one occasion he was urged to 
send increased means of transportation. When he had the 
excess we never failed or neglected to make prompt deliveries 
of prisoners who were not held under charges. 

On the other hand, the cartel was openly and notoriously 
violated by the Washington authorities. Ofificers and men 
were kept in confinement, sometimes in irons or doomed to 
cells, without charge or trial. Many officers were kept in 
confinement even after the notices published by the enemy 
had declared them to be exchanged. 

In the summer of 1863 the Federal authorities insisted 
upon limiting the exchanges to such as were held in confine- 
ment on either side. This was resisted as in violation of the 
cartel. Such a construction kept in confinement the excess on 
either side, but ignored all paroles held by the Confederate 
Government. These were very many, being the paroles of 
officers and men who had been released on capture. The 
Federal Government at that time held no or few paroles. 



448 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

All, or nearly all, had been surrendered. We gave prisoners as 
equivalents for them. As long as we had the excess of pris- 
oners matters went on smoothly enough ; but as soon as the 
position of affairs in that respect was reversed, the cartel would 
no longer be observed by the Federal Government. So long as 
that Government held the paroles of Confederate officers and 
men, they were respected and made the basis of exchange ; 
but when equivalents were obtained for them, and no more 
were in hand, they would not recognize the paroles which were 
held by us. 

In consequence of the position thus assumed by the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, the requirement of the cartel, 
that all prisoners should be delivered within ten days, was 
practically nullified. The deliveries which were afterward 
made were the results of special agreements. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 449 



CHAPTER LXXVI. 

WAR PRISONS, NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN. 

The wish of the Confederate Government was the prompt 
release of all prisoners on both sides, either by exchange or 
parole. When, in 1864, the cartel was so disregarded by the 
enemy as to indicate that prisoners would be held in long 
confinement, Andersonville, Ga., was selected for the loca- 
tion of a principal prison. General Howell Cobb employed 
a large number of negro laborers in the construction of a tem- 
porary shelter for the number of prisoners it was expected 
would be assembled there. The number, however, rapidly 
increased, and by the middle of May gangrene and scurvy 
made their appearance. General John H. Winder went to 
Andersonville in June, and found disease prevailing to such 
an extent that he immediately advised the removal of pris- 
oners to other points. In September, with the main body of 
the prisoners, he removed first to Millen, Ga,, and then to 
Florence, S. C. 

Major Wirz thereafter remained in command at Ander- 
sonville. This unfortunate man — who, under the severe temp- 
tation to which he was exposed before his execution, exhib- 
ited honor and fidelity strongly in contrast with his tempters 
and persecutors — it now appears, was the victim of men 
whom, in his kindness, he paroled to take care of their sick 
comrades, and who, after having violated their parole, ap- 
peared to testify against him. 

In like manner has calumny pursued the memory of Gen- 
eral Winder, a man too brave to be cruel to anything in his 
power. Adjutant- General Samuel Cooper, a man as pure in 
heart as sound in judgment, in a letter of July 9, 1871, wrote 
that " General Winder was an honest, upright, and humane 
gentleman. He had the reputation, in the Confederacy, of 
29 



450 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

treating the prisoners confided to his supervision with great 
kindness and consideration." 

In order to alleviate the hardships of confinement on 
both sides, our Commissioner, on January 24, 1863, addressed 
a communication to General E. A. Hitchcock, United States 
Commissioner of Exchange, in which he proposed that all 
prisoners on each side should be attended by a proper number 
of their own surgeons, who should be permitted to take charge 
of their health and comfort. These surgeons were also to act 
as commissaries, receiving and distributing such food, cloth- 
ing, money, and medicines as might be forwarded to them. 
They were to be selected by their own Government, with full 
liberty to make reports of their own acts and any matters re- 
lating to the welfare of the prisoners. No reply was received. 
In a communication published August, 1868, Commissioner 
Ould says : 

"About the last of March, 1864, I had several conferences 
with General B. F. Butler, and we reached what we both 
thought a tolerably satisfactory basis. The day I left there 
General Grant arrived. General Butler says he communi- 
cated to him the state of the negotiations, and ' most em- 
phatic verbal directions were received from the Lieutenant- 
General not to take any step by which another able-bodied 
man should be exchanged until further orders from him ; ' and 
that on April 30, 1864, he received a telegram from General 
Grant ' to receive all the sick and wounded the Confederate 
authorities may send you, but send no more in exchange.' " 

On October 1st, when the number of prisoners was large 
on both sides. General Lee addressed a note to General 
Grant, saying : 

" With a view of alleviating the sufferings of our soldiers, 
I have the honor to propose an exchange of the prisoners of 
war belonging to the armies operating in Virginia, man for 
man, or upon the basis established by the cartel." 

On the next day General Grant replied : 

'* I could not of right accept your proposition further than 
to exchange prisoners captured within the last three days, 
and who have not yet been delivered to the commanding 
General of prisoners. Among those lost by the armies oper- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 451 

ating against Richmond were a number of colored troops. 
Before further negotiations are had upon the subject, I would 
ask if you propose delivering these men the same as white 
soldiers." 

General Lee said in rejoinder : 

" Deserters from our service and negroes belonging to our 
citizens are not considered subjects of exchange." 

On October 20th General Grant finally answered : 

" I regard it my duty to protect all persons received into 
the army of the United States, regardless of color or nation- 
ality ; when acknowledged soldiers of the Government are 
captured, they must be treated as prisoners of war, or such 
treatment as they receive inflicted upon an equal number of 
prisoners held by us." 

In a despatch from General Grant to General Butler, 
August 18, 1864, the former had said : 

" It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to 
exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks 
to fight our battles. At this particular time to release all 
rebel prisoners North would insure Sherman's defeat, and 
would compromise our safety here." 

We then proposed to the Government of the United 
States to exchange prisoners, ofificer for ofificer, and man for 
man. We had previously declined this proposal, and insisted 
on the terms of the cartel, which required the delivery of the 
excess on either side on parole. No answer being received to 
this proposal a communication was sent, August 22, 1864, to 
Major-General Hitchcock, United States Commissioner of 
Exchange, containing the same proposal. No answer was 
received to either of these letters. 

Thus having ascertained that exchanges could not be 
made, we offered the United States their sick and wounded 
without any equivalents. Although the offer was made in 
the summer, the transportation did not arrive till November. 
Why was there this delay in sending vessels for the transpor- 
tation of sick and wounded, for whom no equivalents were 
asked ? Were Federal prisoners left to suffer, and afterward 
photographed as specimen prisoners, "to aid in firing the 
popular heart of the North " ? 



452 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

One final effort was now made to obtain an exchange. 
This consisted in my sending a delegation from the prisoners 
at Andersonville to plead their cause at Washington. It was 
of no avail. President Lincoln refused to see them. They 
carried back the sad tidings that their Government held out 
no hope of their release. 

The following extracts are from the ofificial report of 
Major-General Butler to " the Committee on the Conduct of 
the War:" 

" General Grant visited Fortress Monroe on April ist 
[1864]. To him the state of the negotiations as to exchange * 
was verbally communicated, and most emphatic directions 
were received from the Lieutenant-General not to take any 
step by which another able-bodied man should be exchanged, 
until further orders from him. 

" After conversation with General Grant, in reply to the 
proposition of Mr. Ould to exchange all prisoners of war on 
either side held, man for man, officer for officer, I wrote an 
argument showing our right to our colored soldiers. This 
argument set forth our claims in the most offensive form pos- 
sible, consistently with ordinary courtesy of language, for the 
purpose of carrying out the wishes of the Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral that no prisoners of war should be exchanged." 

The report continues : 

" In case the Confederate authorities should yield to the 
argument, and formally notify me that their former slaves 
captured in our uniform would be exchanged as other sol- 
diers were, and that they were ready to return us all our 
prisoners at Andersonville and elsewhere in exchange for 
theirs, then I had determined, with the consent of the Lieu- 
tenant-General, as a last resort to prevent exchange, to de- 
mand that the outlawry against me should be formally re- 
versed and apologized for, before I would further negotiate the 
exchange of prisoners. But the argument was enough, and 

* "The negotiations to which General Butler refers were the points of agree- 
ment between General Butler and myself, under which exchanges of all white and 
free black soldiers, man for man and officer for officer, were to go on, leaving the 
question as to slaves to be disposed of by subsequent arrangement " (Letter of 
Mr. Ould, June, 1879). 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 453 

the Confederates never offered to me afterward to exchanc^e 
the colored soldiers who had been slaves, held in prison by 
them." 

The conclusion of the report is as follows : 

" The great importance of the questions ; the fearful re- 
sponsibility for the many thousands of lives which, by the 
refusal to exchange, were sacrificed by the most cruel forms of 
death, from cold, starvation, and pestilence of the prison-pens 
of Raleigh and Andersonville .... have compelled me 
to this exposition, so that it may be seen that those lives 
were spent as a part of the system of attack upon the rebel- 
lion, devised by the wisdom of the General-in-Chief of the 
armies, to destroy it by depletion, depending upon our su- 
perior numbers to win the victory at last." 

Suf^cient facts have been presented to satisfy every intelli- 
gent and candid mind of our entire readiness to surrender, for 
exchange, all the prisoners in our possession, whenever the 
Government of the United States would honestly meet us for 
that purpose. 

During all this time Northern prisons were full of our 
brave soldiers, of whom there were about 60,000. The pri- 
vations they suffered, the cruelties, inspired by the malig- 
nant spirit of the Government, which were inflicted upon 
them, surpass any records of modern history ; yet we have 
had no occasion to seek out a Wirz for public trial before an 
illegal court, that we might conceal behind him our own neg- 
lect and cruel sacrifice of them. Finally, to the allegations of 
ill-treatment of prisoners on our side, and humanity on that of 
our opponents, it is only necessary to offer two facts. First, 
the report of the Secretary of War, E. M. Stanton, made 
July 19, 1866, shows that of all the prisoners in our hands dur- 
ing the war only 22,576 died ; while, of the prisoners in our 
opponents' hands, 26,246 died. Second, in round numbers, the 
number of Confederate prisoners on their hands amounted to 
220,000; the number of United States prisoners in our hands 
amounted to 270,000. Thus, more than twelve per cent of 
the prisoners in our opponents' hands died, and less thannme 
per cent of the prisoners in our hands died. 



454 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXXVII. 

ABORTIVE NEGOTIATIONS. 

That the purpose of the Government of the United States 
was to subjugate the Southern States and the Southern 
people, under the pretext of a restoration of the Union, is 
established by the terms and conditions offered us in all the 
conferences relating to a settlement of differences. Several 
efforts were made by us to communicate with the authorities 
at Washington without success. Commissioners were sent 
before hostilities were begun, but the Government of the 
United States refused to receive them. A second time I sent 
a military officer with a communication addressed by myself 
to President Lincoln. The letter was received by General 
Scott, who did not permit the officer to see Mr. Lincoln. No 
answer was ever received. Vice-President Stephens made a 
tender of his services, and although little belief was enter- 
tained of his success, I cheerfully yielded to his suggestion 
that the experiment be tried. He was stopped before he 
reached Fortress Monroe. 

If we would break up our Government, dissolve the Con- 
federacy, disband our armies, emancipate the slaves, and take 
an oath of allegiance to it, the Government of the United 
States would pardon us, and not deprive us of anything more 
than the property already stolen from us, and such slaves as 
still remained. 

The next movement relating to the accommodation of dif- 
ferences occurred in July, 1864, and consisted in the appearance 
at Richmond of Colonel James F. Jacques, of the Seventy- 
eighth Illinois Infantry, and James R. Gilmore, of Massa- 
chusetts, soliciting an interview with me. They had crossed 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 455 

our lines through a letter of General Grant to Colonel Ould. 
Colonel Jacques expressed the ardent desire he felt, in common 
with the men of their army, for a restoration of peace. Mr. 
Gilmore conveyed the information that the two gentlemen 
had come to Richmond impressed with the idea that the Con- 
federate Government would accept peace on the basis of the 
reconstruction of the Union, the abolition of slavery, and the 
grant of an amnesty to the people of the Confederate States 
as repentant criminals. The abolition of slavery was to be 
accomplished, and all other disputed questions were to be 
settled, by a general vote of all the people of both federations. 
These were stated to be Mr. Lincoln's views. I answered 
that, as the people of the North were a majority, this offer 
was, in effect, a proposal that the Confederate States should 
surrender at discretion, and that Mr. Lincoln ought to have 
known that it was out of the power of the Confederate Gov- 
ernment to act upon the subject of the domestic institutions 
of the several States. Having no disposition to discuss ques- 
tions of state with such persons, especially as they bore no 
credentials, I terminated the interview. 

The opening of the spring campaign of 1864 was deemed 
a favorable conjuncture for the employment of diplomacy. 
Political developments at the North favored the adoption of 
some action by us that might influence popular sentiment in 
the hostile section. A commission of three persons was ac- 
cordingly appointed to visit Canada, with a view to negotia- 
tion with such persons in the North as might be relied upon to 
aid in the attainment of peace. The commissioners— Messrs. 
Clay, of Alabama; Holcombe, of Virginia; and Thompson, 
of Mississippi— established themselves at Niagara Falls, and 
on the 1 2th of July commenced a correspondence with Hor- 
ace Greeley. Mr. Lincoln at first appeared to favor an in- 
terview, but finally refused, on the ground that the commis- 
sioners were not authorized to treat for peace. Hence this 
ovement, like all others which had preceded it, was a fail- 



m 
ure 



On December 30, 1864, I received a request from Mr. 
Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, for permission to visit Rich- 
mond for certain personal objects, which was granted. On 



456 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

January 12, 1865, he visited me. In explanation of his po- 
sition he stated that he, being a man of Southern blood, felt 
very desirous to see the war terminated, and hoped by an 
interview with me to effect something to that end. He was 
without credentials or any instructions from Mr. Lincoln 
which would enable him to speak for him. He read portions 
of a rough draft of a letter he had prepared to send me, in the 
event of his not being able to obtain a personal interview. 
When he had finished, I inquired as to his main proposition, 
the cessation of hostilities and the union of the military forces 
for the common purpose of maintaining the " Monroe doc- 
trine " — how that object was to be reached. He said that 
both political parties asserted the " Monroe doctrine " as a 
cardinal point in their creed, and that there was a general desire 
to apply it in the case of Mexico. For that purpose a secret 
treaty might be made, etc. I called his attention to my past 
efforts for negotiation, and my inability to see how we were to 
take the first step. He expressed the belief that Mr. Lincoln 
would now receive commissioners, though he could not give 
any assurance on that point. For himself he avowed an 
earnest desire to stop the further efTusion of blood. He ex- 
pressed the hope that the pride, the power, and the honor of 
the Southern States should suffer no shock ; and reiterated 
the idea of State sovereignty. He admitted the necessity of 
a new channel for the bitter waters, and another bond than 
that of former memories and interests. This was supposed 
to be contained in the proposed common effort to maintain 
the " Monroe doctrine " on the American continent. The 
only difBculty which he spoke of as insurmountable was that 
of existing engagements between European powers and the 
Confederate States. 

This was rhet by me with a statement that we had now 
no such complication, and were free to act as to us should 
seem best. Our conference ended with no other result than 
an agreement that he would learn whether Mr. Lincoln would 
adopt his (Mr. Blair's) project, and send or receive commis- 
sioners to negotiate for a peaceful solution of the questions 
at issue, and that he would report to him my readiness to erter 
upon negotiations. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 457 

The following letter was given by me to Mr. Blair; 

" F. P. Blair, Esq. 

" Sir : I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and 
am willing now, as heretofore, to enter into negotiations for 
the restoration of peace, and ready to send a commission 
whenever I have reason to suppose it will be received, or to 
receive a commission if the United States Government shall 
choose to send one. That, notwithstanding the rejection of 
our former offers, I would, if you could promise that a com- 
missioner, minister, or other agent would be received, appoint 
one immediately, and renew the effort to enter into confer- 
ence with a view to secure peace to the two countries. 

"Yours, etc., 

"Jefferson Davis." 
" F. P. Blair, Esq. 

" Sir : You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of 
the 1 2th instant, you may say to him that I have constantly 
been, am now, and shall continue ready to receive any agent 
whom he or any other influential person now resisting the 
national authority may informally send to me with the view 
of securing peace to the people of our one common country. 

" Yours, etc., 

"A. Lincoln." 

When Mr. Blair returned and gave me this letter of Mr. 
Lincoln, of January i8th, he said it had been a fortunate thing 
that I gave him that note, as it had created greater confidence 
in Mr. Lincoln regarding his efforts at Richmond. Further 
reflection, he said, had modified the views he formerly pre- 
sented to me. He then unfolded to me the embarrassment 
of Mr. Lincoln on account of the extreme men in Congress 
and elsewhere, who wished to drive him into harsher measures 
than he was inclined to adopt ; whence it would not be 
feasible for him to enter into any arrangement with us by the 
use of political agencies. He therefore suggested that Gen- 
erals Lee and Grant might enter into an arrangement by 
w^hich hostilities would be suspended, and a way paved for 
the restoration of peace. I responded that I would willingly 



458 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

intrust to General Lee such negotiation. Mr. Blair subse- 
quently informed me that the idea of a military convention 
was not favorably received at Washington, so it only remained 
for me to act upon the letter of Mr. Lincoln. 

I determined to send, as commissioners for the informal 
conference, Messrs. Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, 
and John A. Campbell. A letter of commission for each was 
prepared by the Secretary of State. ^Despite Mr. Lincoln's 
letter expressing a willingness to receive any agent I might 
send to Washington, the commissioners were not allowed to 
proceed farther than Hampton Roads, where Mr, Lincoln, 
accompanied by Mr. Seward, met them. Why Mr. Lincoln 
changed his purpose, and, instead of receiving the commis- 
sioners at Washington, met them at Hampton Roads, I can- 
not, of course, explain. I think the views of Mr. Lincoln 
had changed after he wrote the letter to Mr. Blair of Jan. 
i8th, and that the change was mainly produced by the report 
which Mr. Blair made of what he saw and heard at Richmond 
on the night he stayed there. Mr. Blair had many acquaint- 
ances among the members of the Confederate Congress; and 
all those of the class who of old fled to the cave of Adullam 
"gathered themselves unto him." That Mr. Blair saw and 
noted a serious inclining of many of his old friends and asso- 
ciates to thoughts of peace, scarcely admits of a doubt ; and 
if he believed the Congress to be infected by a cabal under- 
mining the Executive in his efforts successfully to prosecute 
the war, Mr. Lincoln may be naturally supposed thence to 
have reached the conclusion that he should accept nothing 
but an unconditional surrender. 

The report of the commissioners, dated February 5, 1865 
(condensed), was as follows : 

"The conference took place on the 30th ult., on board a 
steamer anchored in Hampton Roads, where we met Presi- 
dent Lincoln and the Hon. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State 
of the United States, We understood from President Lin- 
coln that no terms or proposals of any treaty or agreement, 
looking to an ultimate settlement, would be entertained or 
made by him with the authorities of the Confederate States, 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 459 

because that would be a recognition of their existence as a 
separate power, which under no circumstances would be 
done ; and, for a like reason, that no such terms would be 
entertained by him for the States separately ; that no ex- 
tended truce or armistice would be granted without a satis- 
factory assurance in advance of the complete restoration of 
the authority of the Constitution and laws of the United 
States over all places within the States of the Confederacy ; 
that whatever consequences may follow from the re-establish- 
ment of that authority must be accepted; but that individ- 
uals subject to pains and penalties under the laws of the 
United States might rely upon a very liberal use of the power 
confided to him to remit those pains and penalties if peace be 
restored. The proposed amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, adopted by Congress on the 31st ultimo, 
was brought to our notice. This amendment provides that 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, 
should exist within the United States or any place within 
their jurisdiction. 

" Very respectfully, etc., 

" Alexander H. Stephens, 
" R. M. T. Hunter, 
" John A. Campbell." 

This closed the conference and all negotiations with the 
Government of the United States for the establishment of 

peace. 

On March 4, 1861, President Lincoln appeared on the west- 
ern portico of the Capitol at Washington, and in the presence 
of a great multitude of witnesses took the following oath : 

" I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the 
ofifice of President of the United States, and will, to the best 
of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States." 

The first section of the fourth article of the Constitution 
of the United States is in these words : 

" No person held to service or labor in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence 
of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such ser- 



46o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

vice or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party 
to whom such service or labor may be due." 

Thus the Constitution itself nullified Mr. Lincoln's eman- 
cipation proclamation, and made it of no force whatever. Yet 
he assumed and maintained, with all the military force he 
could command, that it set every slave free. The Constitu- 
tion says : 

" This Constitution, and the laws of the United States 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, shall be the su- 
preme law of the land." 

Was it thus obeyed by Mr. Lincoln as the supreme law of 
the land ? It was not obeyed, but set aside, subverted, and 
overturned by him. Of what value, then, are paper constitu- 
tions, and oaths binding officers to their preservation, if there 
is not intelligence enough in the people to discern the viola- 
tions, and virtue enough to resist the violators ? 

The Constitution of the United States says, in Article X : 

" The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved 
to the States respectively, or to the people." 

Within the purview of this article the States are indepen- 
dent, distinct, and separate bodies — that is, in their reserved 
powers they are as sovereign, separate, and supreme as the 
Government of the United States is in its delegated powers. 
One of these reserved powers is the right of the people to 
alter or abolish any form of government, and to institute a 
new one such as to them shall seem most likely to effect their 
safety and happiness ; that power is neither " delegated to 
the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it 
to the States." No one will venture to say that a sovereign 
State, by the mere act of accession to the Constitution, dele- 
gated the power of secession. The assertion would be of no 
validity if it were made ; for the question is one of fact as to 
the powers delegated or not delegated to the United States 
by the Constitution. 

The Convention of the State of New York, which ratified 
the Constitution of the United States on July 26, 1788, in its 
resolution of ratification, said : 

" We do declare and make known . . . that the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 461 

powers of the Government may be reassumed by the people, 
whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness ; that 
every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by the said 
Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the United 
States, or to the departments of the Government thereof, re- 
mains to the people of the several States, or to their respective 
State governments." 

The resolution of Rhode Island asserts the same reserva- 
tion in regard to the reassumption of powers. 

When Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 
seventy-five thousand men to subjugate certain " combina- 
tions too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of 
judicial proceedings," he not only thereby denied the validity 
of the Constitution, but sought to resist, by military force, 
the exercise of a power clearly reserved in the Constitution, 
and reafifirmed in its Tenth Amendment, to the States respec- 
tively, or to the people for their exercise. Thus any recogni- 
tion of the Confederate States, or either of them, in his nego- 
tiations, would have exposed the groundlessness of his fiction. 
But the Constitution required him to recognize each of them, 
for they had simply exercised a power which it expressly re- 
served for their exercise. 

It has been stated that the conditions offered to our sol- 
diers, whenever they proposed to capitulate, were only those 
of subjugation. When General Buckner, on February 16, 
1862, asked of General Grant to appoint commissioners to 
agree upon terms of capitulation, he replied : 

" No terms, except unconditional and immediate surren- 
der, can be accepted." 

When General Lee asked the same question, April 9, 
1865, General Grant replied : 

" The terms upon which peace can be had are well under- 
stood. By the South laying down their arms, they will has- 
ten that most desirable event, save thousands of human^^lives 
and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed." 

General Sherman wrote to General Johnston : 

" I demand the surrender of your army on the same ternis 
as were given to General Lee at Appomattox, on April 9th, 
purely and simply." 



462 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

The Government which spurned all these proposals for 
peace, and gave no terms but unconditional surrender, was 
instituted and organized for the objects expressed in the fol- 
lowing extract : 

" We, the people of the United States, in order to form a 
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquil- 
lity, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 463 



CHAPTER LXXVIII. 

SHERMAN'S MARCH NORTHWARD. 

After the evacuation of Savannah, it soon became known 
that Sherman was making preparations to march northward 
through the Carolinas, with the supposed purpose of uniting 
his forces with those of Grant before Richmond. 

Sherman left Savannah January 22, 1865, and reached 
Pocotaligo on the 24th. On February 3d he crossed the Sal- 
kekatchie with slight resistance, and thence pushed forward to 
the South Carolina Railroad at Midway, Bamberg, and Gra- 
ham's. After thoroughly destroying the railroad between 
these places, which occupied three or four days, he advanced 
slowly along the line of the railroad, threatening Branchville, 
the junction of the railroads from Augusta to Columbia and 
Charleston. For a short time it was doubtful whether he 
proposed to attack Augusta, Ga., where we had our principal 
powder-mill, many important factories and shops, and large 
stores of army supplies ; but on the nth it was found that he 
was moving north to Orangeburg, on the road from Branch- 
ville to Columbia, the latter city being the objective point of 
his march. Early on the morning of the i6th the head of his 
columns reached the Congaree, opposite Columbia. The 
bridge over that stream had been burned by our retreating 
troops, but a pontoon-bridge, built by the enemy under cover 
of strong detachments who had crossed higher up at Saluda 
Factory, enabled the main body to pass the river and enter 
the city on the morning of the 17th, the Confederate troops 
having previously evacuated it. On the same day the Mayor 
formally surrendered the city to Colonel Stone, commanding 
a brigade of the Fifteenth Corps, and claimed for its citizens 
the protection which the laws of civilized war always accord 
to non-combatants. In infamous disregard not only of the 



464 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

established rules of war, but of the common dictates of hu- 
manity, the defenceless city was burned to the ground, after 
the dwelling-houses had been robbed of everything of value, 
and their helpless inmates subjected to insult and outrage of 
a character too base to be described. 

General Sherman has endeavored to escape the reproaches 
for the burning of Columbia by attributing it to General 
Hampton's order to burn the cotton in the city, that it might 
not fall into the hands of the enemy. General Hampton has 
proved circumstantially that General Sherman's statement is 
untrue, and hundreds of unimpeachable witnesses have testi- 
fied that the burning of Columbia was the deliberate act of 
the Federal soldiery, and that it was certainly permitted, if 
not ordered, by the commanding General. 

In order that General Hardee's command might become 
available in the field, it was now deemed advisable to evacu- 
ate Charleston, and thus that noble city and its fortresses, 
which the combined military and naval forces of the United 
States during an eighteen months' siege had failed to reduce, 
were, on February 21, 1865, without resistance, occupied by 
the Federal forces under General Gillmore. 

Fort Sumter, though it now presented the appearance of 
a ruin, was really better proof against bombardment than 
when first subjected to fire. The upper tier of masonrj-, from 
severe battering, had fallen on the outer wall, and shell only 
served to solidify and add harder material to the mass. Over 
its rampart the Confederate flag defiantly floated until the 
city of Charleston was evacuated. 

Every effort that our circumstances permitted was imme- 
diately made to collect troops for the defence of North Caro- 
lina. Hood's army, the troops of General D. H. Hill at Au- 
gusta, Hardee's force, a few thousand men under Bragg, and 
the cavalry commands of Hampton and Wheeler constituted 
our entire available strength to oppose Sherman's advance. 
They were collected as rapidly as our broken communications 
and the difificulty of gathering and transporting supplies 
would permit. 

General J. E. Johnston was assigned to the command of 
the troops in North Carolina, under the supervision and con- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 465 

trol of General R. E. Lee. He relieved Beauregard and as- 
sumed command at Charlotte, February 23d. The force of 
which he now had the command amounted to about 30,500 
men of all arms. 

General Lee's first instructions to him were to " concen- 
trate all available forces and drive back Sherman." The first 
part of the instructions was well executed, the last part of it 
was more desirable than practicable. 

After leaving Columbia, the course of Sherman's army 
through Winnsboro, across the Catawba at Rocky Mount, 
Hanging Rock, and Peay's Ferry, indicated that he would 
attempt to cross the Cape Fear River at Fayetteville, N. C. — 
a town sixty miles south of Raleigh, and of special impor- 
tance as containing an arsenal, several Government shops, and 
a large portion of the machinery which had been removed 
from Harper's Ferry — and effect a junction at that point with 
Schofield's command, then at Wilmington, 

The advance of the enemy's columns across the Catawba, 
Lynch 's Creek, and the Pedee, though retarded as much as 
possible by our cavalry, under Hampton, Butler, and Wheeler, 
was steady and continuous. Johnston's hope that he might 
find an opportunity to strike one of Sherman's columns 
when the other was not in supporting distance, was unhap- 
pily disappointed. 

On March 6th, near Kinston, General Bragg, with a rein- 
forcement of less than 2,000 men, attacked and routed three 
divisions of the enemy under Cox, capturing 1,500 prisoners 
and 3 field-pieces, and inflicting heavy loss in killed and 
wounded. During the march from the Catawba to the Cape 
Fear River, several brilliant cavalry affairs took place, in 
which our troops displayed their wonted energy and dash. 

As it was not known whether Sherman would march to 
Goldsboro or Raleigh, Johnston, with a portion of his com- 
mand, took position at Smithfield, nearly equidistant from 
each of these places, leaving Hardee to follow the road from 
Fayetteville to Raleigh, and posting one division of h^ cav- 
alry on the Raleigh road, and another on the road to Golds- 

boro. 

On the i6th of March Hardee was attacked by two corps 



466 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

of the enemy at Averysboro, a place nearly half-way between 
Fayetteville and Raleigh. Falling back a few hundred 
yards to a stronger position, Hardee easily repelled the re- 
peated attacks of those two corps during the day, and in the 
night, to check a threatening movement of the enemy, he with- 
drew toward Smithfield. 

On the 1 8th Johnston obtained definite information that 
Sherman was marching on Goldsboro, the right wing of his 
army being about a day's march distant from the left. John- 
ston took immediate steps to attack the head of the left wing 
on the morning of the 19th, and ordered the troops at Smith- 
field and Hardee's command to march at once to Bentonville 
and take position between that village and the road on which 
the enemy was advancing. An error in the estimate as to 
the relative distances caused the failure to concentrate our 
troops in time to attack the enemy's left wing while in col- 
umn ; but when General Hardee's troops reached Benton- 
ville in the morning, the attack was commenced. The battle 
lasted through the greater part of the day, resulting in the 
enemy's being driven from two lines of intrenchments, and his 
taking shelter in a dense wood, where it was impracticable for 
our troops to preserve their line of battle or to employ the 
combined strength of the three arms. 

On the 20th the two wings of the Federal army, number- 
ing upward of 70,000, came together and repeatedly attacked 
a division of our force (Hoke's) which occupied an intrenched 
position parallel to the road to Averysboro ; but every attack 
was handsomely repulsed. 

On the next day (21st) an attempt by the enemy to reach 
Bentonville, in the rear of our centre, and thus cut off our only 
route of retreat, was gallantly defeated by an impetuous and 
skilful attack, led by Generals Hardee and Hampton, on the 
front and both flanks of the enemy's column, by which he was 
compelled to retreat as rapidly as he had advanced. On the 
night of the 21st our troops were withdrawn across Mill 
Creek, and in the evening of the 22d bivouacked near Smith- 
field. On the 23d the forces of General Sherman and those 
of General Schofield were united at Goldsboro, where they 
remained inactive for upward of two weeks. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



467 



CHAPTER LXXIX. 

SIEGE OF PETERSBURG, 

After the battle of Cold Harbor the geography of the 
country no longer enabled Grant, by a flank movement to his 
left, to keep himself covered by a stream, and yet draw nearer 
to his objective point. He had now reached the Chickahom- 
iny ; to move down the east bank of that stream would be 
to depart farther from the prize he sought — Richmond. His 
overland march had cost him the loss of more men than Lee's 
army contained at the beginning of the campaign. He now 
decided to seek a new base on the James River, and to at- 
tempt the capture of our capital by a movement from the 
south. With this view, on the night of June 12, i<S64, he 
commenced a movement by the lower crossings of the Chicka- 
hominy toward the James River. Lee learned of the with- 
drawal on the next morning, and moved to our pontoon-bridge 
above Drury's BlufY. 

While Grant's army was making this march to James 
River, General Smith, with his division, which had arrived 
at Bermuda Hundred, was, on the night of the 14th, directed 
to move against Petersburg, with an additional force of two 
divisions, it being supposed that this column would be suflfi- 
cient to effect what Butler's previous attempts had utterly 
failed to accompHsh-the capture of Petersburg and the de- 
struction of the Southern Railroad. On the morning of the 
15th the attack was made, the exterior redoubts and nfle-p.ts 
were carried, and the column advanced toward the nmer 
works, but the artillery was used so effectively as to nnpress 
the commander of the assailants with the idea that there mus 
be a large supporting force of infantry, and the attack 
suspended so as to allow the columns in rear to '^°";^ "P_ 

Hancock's corps was on the south s.de of the James R.ver 



468 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

before the attack on Petersburg commenced, and was ordered 
to move forward, but not informed that an attack was to be 
made, nor directed to march to Petersburg until late in the 
afternoon, when he received orders to move to the aid of 
General Smith. It being night when the junction was made, 
it was deemed prudent to wait until morning. Had they 
known how feeble was the garrison, it is probable that Peters- 
burg would have been captured that night ; but with the 
morning came another change, as marked as that from dark- 
ness to light. Lee crossed the James River on the 15th, and 
by a night march his advance was in the intrenchments of 
Petersburg before the morning for which the enemy was wait- 
ing. The artillery now had other support than the old men 
and boys of the town. 

The Confederates promptly seized the commanding points 
and rapidly strengthened their lines, so that the morning's 
reconnaissance indicated to the enemy the propriety of post- 
poning an attack until all his force should arrive. 

On the 17th an assault was made with such spirit and 
force as to gain a part of our line. The assailants suffered 
severely. Lee had constructed a line in rear of the one first 
occupied, having such advantages as gave to our army much 
greater power to resist. On the morning of the i8th Grant 
ordered a general assault, but finding that the former line had 
been evacuated, and that a new one on more commanding 
ground had been constructed, the assault was postponed until 
the afternoon ; then attacks were made by heavy columns on 
various parts of our line, with some partial success ; but the 
final result was failure everywhere, and with extraordinary 
sacrifice of life. 

With his usual persistence, he had made attack after at- 
tack, and for the resulting carnage had no gain to compensate. 
The eagerness manifested leads to the supposition that it was 
expected to capture the place while Lee with part of his force 
was guarding against an advance on Richmond by the river 
road. The four days' experience seems to have convinced 
Grant of the impolicy of assault, for thereafter he commenced 
to lay siege to the place. On the 21st a heavy force of the 
enemy was advanced more to our right, in the vicinity of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 469 

the Weldon Railroad, which runs southward from Petersburg. 
But General Lee, observing an interval between the left of 
the Second and right of the Sixth of the enemy's corps, sent 
forward a column under Gen. A. P. Hill, which, entering the 
interval, poured a fire into the flank of one corps on the right 
and the other on the left, doubling their flank divisions up on 
their centre, and driving them with disorder and with heavy 
loss. Several entire regiments, a battery, and many stand- 
ards were captured, when Hill, having checked the advance 
which was directed against the Weldon Railroad, withdrew 
with his captures to his former position, bringing with him 
the guns and nearly 3,000 prisoners. 

On the same night, a cavalry expedition, consisting of the 
divisions of Generals Wilson and Kautz, numbering about 
6,000 men, was sent west to cut the Weldon, Southside, and 
Danville Railroads, which connected our army with the south 
and west This raid resulted in important injury to our com- 
munications. The enemy's cavalry tore up large distances of 
the tracks of all three of the railroads, burning the woodwork 
and laying waste the country around. But they were pur- 
sued and harassed by a small body of cavalry under General 
W H F. Lee, and, on their return near Reams Station, 
were met, near Sapponey Church, by a force of 1.500 
cavalry uider General Hampton. That officer at once at 
t.cked The fighting continued fiercely throughout the mght, 
and ai dawn the Enemy's cavalry retreated - con us.on 
Near Ream's Station, at which point they attemp ed o ro^ 
the Weldon Railroad, they were met by ^-eral F t W 

Lee's horsemen and a body of -/-^^. ^^l^^^^f ^ft a 
hone and this force completed their d-comfiture. Af er a 
bdef 'attempt to force their way, they broke m dis der. ^^ 

ing behind them twelve P^-/ XtnTe^ ^T^^^^^ 
prisoners, and many wagons and ambulances 
were soon repaired, and the enemy s cavalry 
time rendered unfit fo^f^^^^^^; ^ee's lines having proved 
Every attempt made to ^^/^^J;"' ^i^.d of slow ap- 

unsuccessful. Grant determmed upon t^e met ^ ^.^^ ^^ 

proaches, and proceeded to confront the cty ^,^ ^^^^^ 

earthworks; and, by gradually extendmg 



470 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

he hoped to reach out toward the VVeldon and Southslde 
Railroads. To obtain possession of these roads now became 
the special object with him, and all his movements had re- 
gard to that end. Petersburg is twenty-two miles south of 
Richmond, and is connected with the south and west by the 
Weldon and Southside Railroads, the latter of which crosses 
the Danville Railroad, the main line of communication be- 
tween Richmond and the Gulf States. With the enemy 
once holding these roads and those north of the city, Rich- 
mond would be isolated, and it would have been necessary 
for the Confederate army to evacuate eastern Virginia. 

General Grant had crossed a force into Charles City, on 
the north bank of the James, and thus menaced Richmond 
with an assault from that quarter. His line extended thence 
across the neck of the peninsula of Bermuda Hundred, and 
east and south of Petersburg, where it gradually stretched 
westward, approaching nearer and nearer to the railroads 
bringing the supplies for our army and for Richmond. The 
line of Lee conformed to that of Grant. In addition to the 
works east and southeast of Richmond, an exterior line of 
defence had been constructed against the hostile forces at 
Deep Bottom, and, in addition to a fortification of some 
strength at Drury's Bluff, obstructions were placed in the 
river to prevent the ascent of the Federal gunboats. The 
lines thence continued facing those of the enemy north of 
the Appomattox, and, crossing that stream, extended around 
the city of Petersburg, gradually moving westward with the 
works of the enemy. The struggle that ensued consisted 
chiefly of attempts to break through our lines. These it is 
not my purpose to notice seriatim ; some of them, however, 
it is thought necessary to mention. 

While, at Petersburg, the assaults of the enemy were met 
by a resistance sufificient to repel his most vigorous attacks, 
our force confronting Deep Bottom was known to be so small 
as to suggest an attempt to capture Richmond by a move- 
ment on the north side of the James. On the 26th of July 
a corps of infantry was sent over to Deep Bottom to move 
against our pontoon-bridges near Drury's Bluff, so as to pre- 
vent Lee from sending reinforcements to the north side of 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 471 

the James, while Sheridan with his cavalry moved to the 
north side of Richmond to attack the works which, being 
poorly garrisoned, it was thought might be taken by Lsault. 
Lee, discovering the movement after the enemy had gained 
some partial success, sent over reinforcements, which drove 
him back and defeated the expedition. On the night of the 
28th the infantry corps (Hancock's) was secretly withdrawn 
from the north side of the river, to co-operate in the grand 
assault which Grant was preparing to make upon Lee's in- 
trenchments. The uniform failure of the assaults upon our 
lines had caused the conclusion that they could only succeed 
after a breach had been made in the works. For that pur- 
pose a subterranean gallery for a mine was run under one of 
our forts. General Burnside, who conducted the operation, 
thus describes the work : 



" The main gallery of the mine is five hundred and twenty- 
two feet in length, the side-galleries about forty feet each. 
My suggestion is that eight magazines be placed in the 
lateral galleries, two at each end, say a few feet apart, at right 
angles to the side-gallery, and two more in each of the side- 
galleries, similarly placed by pairs, situated equidistant from 
each other and the end of the galleries, thus : 




"I proposed to put in each of the eight ™g"'"^' j^^^. 
twelve to fourteen hundred pounds of powder, the maga 



472 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

zines to be connected by a trough of powder instead of a 
fuse." 

It appears that it was decided that the charge should be 
eight thousand pounds instead of the larger amount proposed. 

Between four and five o'clock on the morning of the 
30th of July the mine was exploded, and simultaneously 
the enemy's batteries commenced firing, when, as previously 
arranged, the column of attack moved forward to the breach, 
with instructions to rush through it and seize the crest of a 
ridge in rear of our fort, so as to interpose a force between our 
troops and in rear of our batteries. A question had arisen as 
to whether the assaulting column should consist of white or 
negro troops ; there were brigades of each in General Burn- 
side's division, which occupied that part of the line nearest to 
the mine, and therefore seems to have been considered as the 
command from which the troops to constitute the storming 
column must be selected The explosion was destructive to 
our artillery and its small supporting force immediately above 
the mine. 

An opening, one hundred and fifty feet long, sixty feet 
wide, and thirty feet deep, suddenly appeared in the place of 
the earthworks, and the division of the enemy selected for the 
charge rushed forward to pierce the opening. John Esten 
Cooke thus describes what ensued : 

" The white division charged, reached the crater, stumbled 
over the debris, were suddenly met by a merciless fire of artil- 
lery enfilading them right and left, and of infantry fusillading 
them in front ; faltered, hesitated, were badly led, lost heart, 
gave up the plan of seizing the crest in rear, huddled into the 
crater man on top of man, company mingled with company ; 
and upon this disordered, unstrung, quivering mass of human 
beings, white and black — for the black troops had followed — 
was poured a hurricane of shot, shell, canister, musketry, 
which made the hideous crater a slaughter-pen, horrible and 
frightful beyond the power of words. All order was lost ; 
all idea of charging the crest abandoned. Lee's infantry was 
seen concentrating for the carnival of death ; his artillery was 




CONFEDEKATE (JkNERAI.S. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 



473 



massing to destroy the remnants of the charging divisions ; 
those who deserted the crater, to scramble over the debris and 
run back, were shot down ; then all that was left to the shud- 
dering mass of blacks and whites in the pit was to shrink 
lower, evade the horrible mitraille, and wait for a charge of 
their friends to rescue them or surrender." 

The forces of the enemy finally succeeded in making their 
way back, with a loss of about four thousand prisoners, and 
General Lee, whose casualties were small, re-established his 
line without interruption. 

Attacks continued to be made on our lines during the 
months of August and September, but they were promptly 
repulsed. On August i8th the enemy seized on a portion of 
the Weldon Railroad near Petersburg, and on the 25th this 
success was followed up by an attempt, under Hancock, to 
take possession of Ream's Station on the same road, farther 
south. He was defeated by Heth's division and a portion of 
Wilcox's, under the direction of A. P. Hill, and, having lost 
heavily, was compelled to retreat. These events did not ma- 
terially affect the general result. The enemy's left gradually 
reached farther and farther westward, until it had passed the 
Vaucrhan, Squirrel Level, and other roads running southwest- 
ward" from Petersburg, and in October was established on the 
left bank of Hatcher's Run. The movement was designed 
to reach the Southside Railroad. A heavy column crossed 
Hatcher's Run, and made an obstinate attack on our hnes, m 
order to break through to the railroad T1-- -"J- ^^ 
in front and flank by Hampton and W. H. F. Le|. w th chs" 

mounted sharpshooters. ^-'--'\''T TLs7lot ^ 
Lee and the enemy was driven back. This closed for the 
; nler active operations against our lines at Petersburg. 



474 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXXX. 

FORT FISHER. 

When the campaign opened on the Rapidan, Lee's effec- 
tive strength was in round numbers 6o,ocxd of all arms; that 
of Grant at the same time, 140,000. Although in the many- 
battles fought in this campaign Grant's loss had been a mul- 
tiple of that sustained by Lee, yet Grant's losses were so 
rapidly repaired by reinforcements, both before and after he 
crossed the James River, that the numerical disparity must 
have been increased. Yet the long-projected movement for 
the reduction of Fort Fisher and the capture of Wilmington 
was delayed because of Grant's unwillingness, notwithstand- 
ing the great superiority in the number of his force, to detach 
any troops for that purpose until after active operations be- 
fore Petersburg had been suspended. 

The enemy seems about this time to have conceived a new 
means of destroying forts. It was to place a large amount of 
powder in a boat, and, having anchored off the fort, to ex- 
plode the powder and so destroy the works and incapacitate 
the garrison as to enable a storming party to capture them. 
I low near to Fort Fisher it was expected to anchor the ship 
I do not know, nor how far it was supposed the open atmos- 
phere could be made to act as a projectile. General Whit- 
ing, who commanded the defences of Wilmington, stated that 
the powder ship did not come nearer to Fort Fisher than 
twelve or fifteen hundred yards. No effect was produced by 
the explosion on the fort. 

The combined force of this expedition was 6,500 land 
troops and 50 vessels of war of various sizes and classes, several 
ironclads, and the ship charged with 235 tons of powder. 
Some of the troops landed, but after a reconnaissance of the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 475 

fort which then had a garrison of 6,500 men, the troops were 
re-embarked. Thus the expedition ended. 

On January 15, 1865, the attempt was renewed with a 
larger force, amounting, after the arrival of General Schofield, 
to twenty-odd thousand. Porter's fleet also received addi- 
tional vessels, making the whole number 58 engaged in the 
attack. The garrison of Fort Fisher had been increased to 
probably more than the number of mei\ there on December 
24th. The iron-clad vessels of the enemy approached nearer 
the fort than on the former occasion, and the fire of the fleet 
was more concentrated and vastly more effective. Many of 
the guns in the fort were dismounted, and the parapets seri- 
ously injured, by the fire. The garrison stood bravely to then- 
euns, and, when the assault was made, fought with such de- 
termined courage as to repulse the first column, and obstmately 
contended with another approaching from the land side, con- 
tinuing the fight long after they had got into the fort. Im- 
ally, overwhelmed by numbers, and after the for and its a.- 
,.ament had been mainly destroyed by a bombardn.nt- 
believe greater than ever before concentrated on a fort--the 
remnant of the garrison surrendered. The other forts, of ne- 
ceX fell with the main work, Fisher, and were abandoned. 
Hoke after destroying the public vessels and property, slowly 
fdfblct through WUm^ and finally made a junction 

with General Johnston. 



4/6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXXXI. 

EVACUATION OF PETERSBURG. 

The fixed purpose of Grant's campaign of 1864 was the 
capture of Richmond. For this he had assembled the large 
army with which he crossed the Rapidan, and fought the nu- 
merous battles between that river and the James. For this 
he had moved against Petersburg, which was not valuable in 
itself, but only because it was on the line of communication 
with the more southern States, and afforded another approach 
to Richmond. 

In the opening of the campaign of 1865 he continued to 
extend his line to the left, seeking to reach the railroad con- 
necting Petersburg with the Richmond and Danville Railroad. 
With a well-deserved confidence in his troops, and his usual 
intrepidity, Lee drew from his lines of defence men enough 
to enable him for a long time to defeat the enemy in these 
efforts. 

During the months of February and March, Lee's army 
was materially reduced by the casualties of battle and the 
frequency of absences without leave. These absentees were 
not deserters — they did not join the enemy ; for the most 
part they had gone to their necessitous families, with the in- 
tention of returning to resume their places in the line of battle. 
Lee's cavalry force was also diminished by the absence of 
General Hampton's division, which had received permission 
to return to South Carolina to get fresh horses and to recruit. 

Early in March General Lee, in a full and free conference 
with me, stated his belief that the evacuation of Petersburg 
was but a question of time. As one of the expedients for 
avoiding retreat — a movement to which he was instinctively 
averse — a short time subsequent to this conversation he sub- 
mitted the plan of a sortie against the enemy's right. This 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 477 

sortie, if entirely successful, would threaten Grant's line of 
communication with his base ; if only partially successful, it 
would relieve our right, and delay the impending disaster for 
a more convenient season for retreat. 

Fort Steadman was the point against which the sortie was 
directed. The distance from our lines was less than two hun- 
dred yards, but an abatis covered its front. For this service, 
requiring equal daring and steadiness. General John B. Gor- 
don was selected. His command was the remnant of Ewell's 
corps, troops often tried in the fiery ordeal of battle, and always 

found true. 

Before daylight on the morning of the 25th of March, 
Gordon moved his troops silently forward. His pioneers 
were sent in advance to make openings through the obstruc- 
tions and the troops rushed forward, surprised and captured 
the garrison, then turned their guns on the adjacent works, 
and soon drove the enemy out of them. A detachment was 
now sent to seize the commanding ground and works m the 
rear the batteries of which, firing into the gorges of the forts 
on the right and left, would soon make a wide opemngm 
Grant's line. The guides to this detachment misled it m he 
darkness of a foggy dawn far from the pomt to -l-h it . 
directed In the meantime the enemy, recovering from his 
st^iL and the confusion into which he had be^ thro.n 
rained and with overwhelming power concentrated b tl a 
tillery and infantry upon Gordon's ^;---/.. / \^ ^^^^ . 
incr force which was to have followed him failed to come fo 
:rrdrand Gordon's brilliant success like .^^^^ Sea fru 1. 
was turned to ashes at the — 

ported, it was hopeless to retain the P ^^ ^^.^ 

He was compelled to withdraw. I'^ ^° "^^^ ^^ „,,Hy all. 
men were killed and many taken prisoners all, 
who had been detached to seize ^t^^^ J^ ^ ' ^^ ^^^3 ^,dc 
Immediately after the sortie an extensive att 

upon our lines on the ^^;l^^^t:r;^^^^ P- f 
decisive results. On the 27tn ^^^^ to 

Grant's forces conCronting '^'^■^-".t Tame day his left was 
the lines before Petersburg, and o^, rt-e sam 
joined by Sheridan's div.s.on of cavalry. 



478 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

On the 31st of March Grant, strengthened by two corps, 
made a determined movement to gain the right of Lee's posi- 
tion. Before he was ready to make the assault, however, Lee, 
with a comparatively small force, took the initiative, struck the 
enemy's advance, and repulsed him in great confusion. 

A strategic position of recognized importance was that 
known as Five Forks. Lee had there stationed General Pick- 
ett with his division, and some additional force. On April 
1st this position was assaulted, and our troops were driven 
from it in confusion. The unsettled question of time was 
now solved. 

Grant's massive columns, advancing on the right, left, and 
centre, compelled our forces to retire to the inner line of de- 
fence ; so that, on the morning of the 2d, the enemy was in 
a condition to besiege Petersburg in the true sense of that 
term. Battery Gregg made an obstinate defence, and with a 
garrison of about 250 men held a corps in check for a large 
part of a day. The arrival of Longstreet's troops, and the 
strength of the shorter line now held by Lee, enabled him to 
make several attempts to dislodge his opponent from posi- 
tions he had gained, in one of which, however. General A. P. 
Hill was killed. 

Retreat was now a present necessity. All that could be 
done was to hold the inner lines during the day, and make 
needful preparations to withdraw at night. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 479 



CHAPTER LXXXII. 

EVACUATION OF RICHMOND. 

On the forenoon of Sunday, April 2d, I received when in 
church a telegram announcing that the army would retire 
from Petersburg at night. I went to my office to give the 
needful directions for the evacuation of Richmond, the great- 
est difficulty of which was the withdrawal of the troops east 
of the city and along the James River. 

The event had come before Lee had expected it. For, 
while it had been foreseen as a coming event that might 
possibly, though not probably, be averted, it was not be- 
lieved to be so near at hand. 

At nightfall our army commenced crossing the Appo- 
mattox, and before dawn was far on its way to Amelia 
Court-House, Lee's original purpose being, as agreed on in 
our conference, to march to Danville, Va. Prevented from 
carrying out this purpose, he directed his march to Lynch- 
burg. 

Lee had never contemplated surrender. He had long 
before expressed to me the belief that in the mountains of 
Virginia he could carry on the war for twenty years, and in 
dire^cting his march toward Lynchburg it may well be that, as 
an alternative, he hoped to reach those mountains, and, with 
the advantage which the topography would give him, yet 
baffle the hosts that were pressing him. 

On the evening of the 8th General Lee decided, after 
conference with his corps commanders, that he would advance 
the next day beyond Appomattox Court-House, and ^if the 
force reported there should prove to be only Sheridan's cav- 
alry, to disperse it and continue the march toward Lynch- 
burg ; but if infantry should be found in large force, the 
attempt to break through it was not to be made, but proposi- 



48o A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

tions for an interview with General Grant were to be made 
to arrange the terms of capitulation. 

Gordon, whose corps formed the rear-guard from Peters- 
burg, and who had fought daily for the protection of the 
trams, had now been transferred to the front. Next morn- 
ing, before daybreak. General Lee sent a staff officer to learn 
his opmion as to the chance of a successful attack. Gordon 
replied that his corps was " reduced to a frazzle," and that 
unless he was supported by Longstreet heavily, he did not 
think we could do anything more. When this answer was 
reported to Lee he said: " Then there is nothing left me but 
to go and see General Grant." 

As at that time Longstreet, covering the rear, was threat- 
ened by Meade with a numerically superior force, it was im- 
possible for him to reinforce Gordon; hence General Lee 
realized that the emergency had arisen which on the day 
previous he did not believe existed. 

When Colonel Venable, who carried Lee's inquiry to Gor- 
don, left his headquarters to return, the general was forming 
his line of battle to attack the enemy. Gordon had 5,000 in- 
fantry, 1,500 cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee, and a battalion of ar- 
tillery, with whom he was then preparing to assail the enemy 
in his front, who were supposed to be Sheridan's cavalry. 
The assault was made with such vigor and determination as 
to drive Sheridan a considerable distance ; and if he had been 
the only obstacle the road would have been opened for Lee 
to resume the march to Lynchburg. But, after Gordon had 
advanced nearly a mile, he found himself confronted by a 
body of eighty thousand infantry. 

To attack such a force was hopeless. Gordon therefore 
began to fall back. The enemy advanced as he retreated. 
Suddenly the pursuing enemy came to a halt. 

Lee had sent a flag to Grant, who had thereupon ordered 
a suspension of hostilities. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 481 



CHAPTER LXXXIIL 

THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX. 

A LEADER less resolute than General Lee, an army less 
heroically resisting fatigue, constant watching, and starvation, 
would long since have reached the conclusion that surrender 
was a necessity. Men and horses all reduced below the 
standard of efficiency by exposure and insufficient supplies of 
clothing, food, and forage, only the mutual confidence between 
the men and their commander could have sustained either 
under the trials to which they were subjected. It is not a 
matter of surprise that the army should have wasted away to 
a mere remnant, but rather that it had continued to exist as 
an organized body still willing to do battle. All the evidence 
we have proves that the proud, cheerful spirit both of the 
army and its leader had resisted the extremes of privation and 
danger, and never sank until confronted by surrender. 

General Grant, in response to a communication under a 
white flag made by General Lee, came to Appomattox, ^vhere 
a suitable room was provided for their conference; and, the 
two generals being seated at a small table. General Lee opened 
the interview thus : " General, I deem it due to proper candor 
and frankness to say at the very beginning of this interview 
that I am not willing even to discuss any terms of surrender 
inconsistent with the honor of my army, which I am deter- 
mined to maintain to the last." 

General Grant replied that he had no idea of proposmg 
dishonorable terms, but he would be glad if General Lee 
would state what be considered honorable terms. 

General Lee then briefly stated the terms upon which he 
would be willing to surrender. General Grant expressed 
himself as satisfied with them, and Lee requested that he 
would formally reduce the propositions to writing. 
31 



4^2 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

These propositions were substantially the same as had 
been stated in General Grant's letter of the 8th Thev re 
quired ^ 

" The officers to give their individual parole not to take 
arms against the Government of the United States until 
properly exchanged, and each company or regimental com- 
mander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands 

.nd J t T":. "''^"'7' '"^ P"^^^'^ ^'"^'''y to be parked 
and stacked and turned over to the officers appointed by me 
to receive them. ^ 

" This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor 
their private horses or baggage. 

" This done, each officer and man will be allowed to re- 
turn to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States 
authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws 
m lorce where they may reside." 

General Lee accepted these terms, and the surrender and 
dispersion of the gallant Army of Northern Virginia was ac- 
comphshed. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 483 



CHAPTER LXXXIV. 

EVACUATION OF RICHMOND. 

When, on the morning of April 2d, the main line of the 
defences of Petersburg was broken, General Lee telegraphed 
the advice that Richmond should be evacuated that night 
simultaneously with the withdrawal of his troops. This left 
little time for preparation, especially in the matter of provid- 
ing transportation for the troops holding the eastern defences 
of Richmond. To supply the cavalry, artillery, and army- 
wagons with horses had so exhausted the stock of Virginia 
as to leave the quartermaster's department little ability to 
supplement the small transportation possessed or required by 
troops regarded as a stationary defence. Hence their with- 
drawal had to be made under circumstances involving un- 
usual embarrassments on the march ; but soldiers, sailors, and 
citizens, constituting the " reserves," all vied with each other 
in the performance of the hard duty to which they were called 
—a night march over unknown roads, pursued by a powerful 
enemy having large bodies of cavalry. 

Overcoming the great obstacles, and not without several 
conflicts with the enemy, Ewell's corps, G. W. C. Lee's di- 
vision, and the remainder of the defenders of Richmond with- 
drew to the different points assigned to them. 

On the withdrawal of our troops there was a serious con- 
flagration in Richmond, but neither army was responsible for 

that calamitv. 

On Sundly, April 2d, while I was in St. Paul's church. 
General Lee's telegram, announcing his speedy withdrawal 
from Petersburg, and the consequent necessity for evacuating 
Richmond, was handed to me. I quietly rose and left the 
church. The occurrence probably attracted attention, but 
the people of Richmond had been too long beleaguered, had 



484 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

known me too often to receive notice of threatened attacks, 
and the congregation of St. Paul's was too refined, to make a 
scene at anticipated danger. I went to my office and assem- 
bled the heads of departments and bureaus, as far as they 
could be found on a day when all the ofifices were closed, and 
gave the needful instructions for our removal that night, si- 
multaneously with General Lee's withdrawal from Peters- 
burg. The event was not unforeseen, and some preparation 
had been made for it, though, as it came sooner than was 
expected, there was yet much to be done. The executive 
papers were arranged for removal. This occupied myself and 
staff until late in the afternoon. By this time the report that 
Richmond was to be evacuated had spread through the town, 
and many who saw me walking toward my residence left their 
houses to inquire whether the report was true. Upon my 
admission of the painful fact, qualified, however, by the 
expression of my hope that we should under better auspices 
again return, they all, the ladies especially, with generous sym- 
pathy and patriotic impulse, responded, " If the success of the 
cause requires you to give up Richmond, we are content." 

The affection and confidence of this noble people in the 
hour of disaster were more distressing to me than complaint 
and unjust censure would have been. 

In view of the diminishing resources of the country on 
which the Army of Northern Virginia relied for supplies, I 
had urged the policy of sending families as far as practicable 
to the south and west, and had set the example by requiring 
my own to go. If it was practicable and desirable to hold 
the south side of the James, then, even for merely material 
considerations, it was important to hold Richmond, and this 
could best have been done if there had been none there save 
those who could aid in its defence. If it was not practicable 
and desirable to hold the south side of the James, then Rich- 
mond would be isolated ; and if it could have been defended, 
its depots, foundries, workshops, and mills could have con- 
tributed nothing to the armies outside, and its possession 
would no longer have been to us of military importance. 
Ours being a struggle for existence, the indulgence of senti- 
ment would have been misplaced. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 485 

Being alone in Richmond, the few arrangements needful 
for my personal wants were soon made after reaching home. 
Then, leaving all else in care of the housekeeper, I waited 
until notified of the time when the train would depart ; then, 
going to the station, started for Danville, whither I supposed 
General Lee would proceed with his army. 

Though the occupation of Danville was not expected to 
be permanent, immediately after arriving there rooms were ob- 
tained, and the different departments resumed their routine 
labors. Nothing could have exceeded the kindness and hos- 
pitality of the patriotic citizens. They cordially gave us an 
" Old Virginia welcome," and with one heart contributed in 
every practicable manner to cheer and aid us in the work in 
which we were engaged. 

The town was surrounded by an intrenchment as faulty 
in location as construction. I promptly proceeded to correct 
the one and improve the other, while energetic efforts were 
being made to collect supplies of various kinds for General 
Lee's army. 

The design, as previously arranged with General Lee, was 
that, if he should be compelled to evacuate Petersburg, he 
would proceed to Danville, make a new defensive line of the 
Dan and Roanoke Rivers, unite his army with the troops in 
North Carolina, and make a combined attack upon Sherman ; 
if successful, it was expected that reviving hope would bring 
reinforcements to the army, and Grant, being then far removed 
from his base of supplies, and in the midst of a hostile popu- 
lation, it was thought we might return, drive him from the 
soil of Virginia, and restore to the people a government deriv- 
ing its authority from their consent. 

While thus employed, little if any reliable information in 
regard to the Army of Northern Virginia was received, until 
a son of General Henry A. Wise came to Danville, and told 
me that, learning Lee's army was to be surrendered, he had 
during the night mounted his fleet horse, and, escaping 
through and from the enemy's cavalry, had come quite alone 
to warn me of the approaching event. Other unofificial infor- 
mation soon followed, and of such circumstantial character as to 
prove that Lieutenaut Wise's anticipation had been realized. 



4S6 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

Our scouts now reported a cavalry force to be moving to- 
ward the south around the west side of Danville, and we re- 
moved thence to Greensboro, passing a railroad-bridge a very 
short time before the enemy's cavalry reached and burned it. 
I had telegraphed to General Johnston from Danville the 
report that Lee had surrendered, and, on arriving at Greens- 
boro, conditionally requested him to meet me there, where 
General Beauregard at the time had his headquarters, my ob- 
ject being to confer with both of them in regard to our pres- 
ent condition and future operations. 



'H., 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 487 



CHAPTER LXXXV. 

SURRENDER OF GENERAL JOHNSTON. 

In compliance with my request General Johnston came to 
Greensboro, N. C, and with General Beauregard met me and 
most of my Cabinet at my quarters there. Though fully sen- 
sible of the gravity of our position, seriously affected as it was 
by the evacuation of the capital, the surrender of the army of 
Northern Virginia, and the consequent discouragement which 
those two events would produce, I did not think that we 
should despair. We still had effective armies in the field, and 
a rare extent of rich and productive territory both east and 
west of the Mississippi, whose citizens had shown no disposi- 
tion to surrender. Ample supplies had been collected in the 
railroad depots, and much still remained to be placed at our 
disposal when needed. 

At the first conference of the members of my Cabinet and 
the generals in command. General Johnston expressed a de- 
sire to open a correspondence with General Sherman with a 
view to a suspension of hostilities, and thereby permit the civil 
authorities to enter into the needful arrangements to end the 
war. I had never contemplated a surrender, except upon such 
terms as a belligerent might claim, as long as we were able to 
keep the field, and never expected a Confederate army to sur- 
render while it was able either to fight or to retreat. Lee had 
surrendered only when it was impossible for him to do either; 
and in the face of overwhelming numbers had proudly rejected 
Grant's demand until he found himself surrounded and his 
line of retreat blocked by a force much larger than his own. 
I was not at all hopeful of any success in the attempt to pro- 
vide for negotiations between the civil authorities of the 
United States and those of the Confederacy, believing that, 
even if Sherman should agree to such a proposition, his govern- 



488 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

ment would not ratify it ; but after having distinctly announced 
my opinion, I yielded to the judgment of my constitutional 
advisers, and consented to permit Johnston, as he desired, to 
hold a conference with Sherman. 

' After this decision, Johnston left for his army head- 
quarters, and I, expecting that he would soon take up his 
line of retreat, which his superiority in cavalry would protect 
from harassing pursuit, proceeded with my cabinet and staff 
to Charlotte, N. C. While on my way a dispatch was re- 
ceived from Johnston stating that Sherman had agreed to a 
conference, and asking that the Secretary of War, General 
Breckinridge, should return to co-operate in it. 

When we arrived at Charlotte, on April i8, 1865, we 
received a telegram announcing the assassination of President 
Lincoln. A vindictive policy was speedily substituted for 
his, which avowedly was to procure a speedy surrender of our 
forces in the field upon any terms, and to stop the further 
effusion of blood. 

On the same day Sherman and Johnston united on a 
memorandum, or basis of agreement, which contained the fol- 
lowing provisions : 

" That both of the contending armies should maintain 
their status quo until either of the commanding Generals 
should give notice of its termination, and allow reasonable 
time to his opponent. 

" That the Confederate armies should be disbanded and 
conducted to the several State capitals and deposit their arms 
and public property in the State arsenal; each officer and 
man to file an agreement to cease from acts of war, and abide 
the action of both Federal and State authorities. 

" That there should be recognition by the Executive of 
the United States of the several State Governments on their 
officers and legislatures taking the oaths prescribed by the 
Constitution of the United States, and, where conflicting 
State Governments have resulted from the war, the legiti- 
macy of all shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

" That all Federal Courts should be re-established in the 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 489 

several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution of 
the United States and of the States respectively. 

" That the people and inhabitants of all States should be 
guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their political rights 
and franchises, as well as their rights of person and property, 
as defined by the Constitution of the United States and of 
the States respectively. 

" That the Executive authority of the Government of the 
United States should not disturb any of the people by reason 
of the late war, so long as they live in peace and quiet, ab- 
stain from acts of armed hostility, and obey the laws. 

" That, in general terms, war should cease ; a general am- 
nesty, so far as the Executive of the United States could 
command, on condition of the disbandment of the Confed- 
erate armies, the distribution of arms, and resumption of 
' peaceful pursuits by the officers and men hitherto compos- 

ing said armies. Not being fully empowered by our respec- 
tive principals to fulfil these terms, we individually and offi- 
cially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain necessary authority, 
Ij and to carry out the above programme. 

"W. T. Sherman, Major-Gcncral,'' etc. 
" J. E. Johnston, General^'' etc. 

I notified General Johnston that I approved his action. 
In doing so I doubted whether the agreement would be 
ratified by the United States Government. The opinion I 
entertained in regard to President Johnson and Stanton, his 
venomous Secretary of War, did not permit me to expect 
that they would be less vindictive after a surrender of our 
army had been proposed than when it was regarded as a 
formidable body defiantly holding its position in the field. 
Whatever hope others entertained that the war was about 
to be peacefully ended was soon dispelled by the rejection of 
the basis of agreement by the Government of the United 
States, and a notice from Sherman of the termination of the 
armistice in forty-eight hours after noon of the 24th of April. 
On the 26th General Johnston again met General Sherman, 
who offered the same terms which had been made with Gen- 
eral Lee. Johnston accepted the terms, and the surrender 



490 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

was made, with the condition of his troops being paroled, and 
the officers being permitted to retain their side-arms, baggage, 
and private horses. 

The total number of prisoners thus paroled at Greensbor- 
ough, N. C, as reported by General Schofield, was 36,817; in 
Georgia and Florida, as reported by General Wilson, 52,543; 
in all, under General Johnston, 89,360. 

On May 8th General Richard Taylor agreed with Gen- 
eral Canby for the surrender of the land and naval forces in 
Mississippi and Alabama, on terms similar to those made be- 
tween Johnston and Sherman. 

On the 26th of May the Chiefs of Staff of General Kirby 
Smith and General Canby arranged similar terms for the 
surrender of the troops in the trans-Mississippi Department. 

The total number thus paroled by General Canby in the 
Department of Alabama and Mississippi was 42,293, to which 
maybe added less than 150 of the navy; while the number 
surrendered by General Kirby Smith of the trans-Mississippi 
Department was 17,686. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 491 



CHAPTER LXXXVI. 

CAPTURE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS. 

After the expiration of the armistice I rode out of Char- 
lotte, attended by all but two members of my Cabinet, my 
personal staff, and the cavalry that had been concentrated 
from different fields of detached service. The number was 
about 2,000. They represented five brigade organizations. 
Though so much reduced in number they were in a good state 
of ef^ficiency, and among their officers were some of the best 
in our service. 

We proceeded at easy stages. After two halts of half a 
day each, we reached the Savannah River. 

I crossed early in the morning of the 4th of May, with a 
company which had been detailed as my escort, and rode 
some miles to a farmhouse, where I halted to get breakfast 
and have our horses fed. Here I learned that a regiment of 
the enemy were moving upon Washington, Ga., which 
was one of our depots of supplies, and I sent back a courier 
with a pencil-note addressed to General Vaughan, or the offi- 
cer commanding the advance, requesting him to come on and 
join me immediately. After waiting a considerable time I 
determined to move on with my escort, trusting that the 
others would overtake us, and that, if not, we should arrive in 
Washington in time to rally the citizens to its defence. When 
I reached there scouts were sent out on the different roads, 
and my conclusion was that we had had a false alarm. The 
Secretary of State, Mr. Benjamin, being unaccustomed to 
travelling on horseback, parted from me at the house where 
we stopped to breakfast, to take another mode of conveyance 
and a different route from that which I was pursumg, with 
intent to rejoin me in the trans-Mississippi Department At 
Washington the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, left me 



492 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

temporarily, to attend to the needs of his family. The Secre- 
tary of War, Mr. Breckinridge, had remained with the cavalry 
at the crossing of the Savannah River. During the ni-ht 
after my arrival in Washington he sent in an application "for 
authority to draw from the treasure, under the protection of 
the troops, enough to make to them a partial payment. I au- 
thorized the acting Secretary of the Treasury to meet the 
requisition by the use of the silver coin in the train. When 
the next day passed without the troops coming forward I 
sent a note to the Secretary of War, showing the impolicy of 
my longer delay, having then heard that General Upton had 
passed within a few miles of the town on his way to Au-usta 
to receive the surrender of the garrison and military material 
at that place, in conformity with orders issued by General 
Johnston. This was my first positive information of his 
surrender. Not receiving an immediate reply to the note 
addressed to the Secretary of War, General Breckinridge I 
explained to Captain Campbell, of Kentucky, commanding 
my escort, the condition of affairs, and, telling him that his 
company was not strong enough to fight, and too large to pass 
without observation, asked him to inquire if there were ten 
men who would volunteer to go with me without question 
wherever I should choose. He brought back for answer that 
the whole company volunteered on the terms proposed 
Gratifying as this manifestation was, I felt it would expose 
them to unnecessary hazard to accept the offer, and told him 
in any manner he might think best, to form a party of ten 
men. With these ten men and five of my personal staff I 
left Washington. Secretary Reagan remained for a short 
time to transfer to Mr. Semple and Mr. Tidball the treasure 
in his hands, except a few thousand dollars, and then rejoined 
me on the road. 

Mr. Reagan overtook me in a few hours, but I saw no 
more of General Breckinridge, and learned subsequently that 
he was following our route, with a view to overtake me, when 
he heard of my capture, and, turning to the east, reached the 
Florida coast unmolested. On the way he met J. Taylor 
Wood, and, in an open boat, they crossed the straits to the 
West Indies. No report reached me at that time, or until 




Jefferson Davis When Captured. 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 493 

long afterward, in regard to the cavalry command left at the 
Savannah River ; then it was to the effect that paroled men 
from Johnston's army brought news of its surrender, and that 
the condition of returning home and remaining unmolested 
embraced all the men of the department who would give their 
parole, and that this had exercised a great influence over the 
troops, inclining them to accept those terms. Had General 
Johnston obeyed the order sent to him from Charlotte, and 
moved on the route selected by himself, with all his cavalry, 
so much of the infantry as could be mounted, and the light 
artillery, he could not have been successfully pursued by Gen- 
eral Sherman. His force, united to that I had assembled at 
Charlotte, would, it was believed, have been sufficient to van- 
quish any troops which the enemy had between us and the 
Mississippi River. 

Had the cavalry with which I left Charlotte been associ- 
ated with a force large enough to inspire hope for the future, 
instead of being discouraged by the surrender in their rear, it 
would probably have gone on, and, when united with the 
forces of Maury, Forrest, and Taylor, in Alabama and Missis- 
sippi, have constituted an army large enough to attract strag- 
glers, and revive the drooping spirits of the country. In the 
worst view of the case it should have been able to cross to the 
trans-Mississippi Department, and, there uniting with the 
armies of E. K. Smith and Magruder, to form an army which, 
in the portion of that country abounding in supplies and de- 
ficient in rivers and railroads, could have continued the war 
until our enemy, foiled in the purpose of subjugation, should, 
in accordance with his repeated declaration, have agreed, on 
the basis of a return to the Union, to acknowledge the Con- 
stitutional rights of the States, and by a convention, or quasi- 
treaty, to guarantee security of person and property. To this 
hope I persistently clung, and, if our independence could not 
be achieved, so much, at least, I trusted might be gained. ^^ 
Those who have endured the horrors of " reconstruction,' 
who have, under " carpet-bag rule," borne insult, robbery, and 
imprisonment without legal warrant, can appreciate the value 
which would have attached to such limited measure of sue 
cess. 



494 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

When I left Washington, Ga., with the small party which 
has been enumerated, my object was to go to the south far 
enough to pass below the points reported to be occupied by 
Federal troops, and then turn to the west, cross the Chatta- 
hoochie, and go on to meet the forces still supposed to be 
in the field in Alabama, If, as now seemed probable, there 
should be no prospect of a successful resistance east of the 
Mississippi, I intended then to cross to the trans-Mississippi 
Department, where I believed Generals E. K. Smith and Ma- 
gruder would continue to uphold our cause. 

After leaving Washington in the manner and for the pur- 
pose heretofore described, I overtook a commissary and quar- 
termaster's train, having public papers of value in charge, and, 
finding that they had no experienced woodsman with it, 1 
gave them four of the men of my small party, and went on 
with the rest. On the second or third day after leaving 
Washington I heard that a band of marauders, supposed to 
be stragglers and deserters from both armies, were in pursuit 
of my family, whom I had not seen since they left Rich- 
mond, but who, I heard at Washington, had gone with my 
private secretary and seven paroled men, who generously 
offered their services as an escort, to the Florida coast. 
Their route was to the east of that I was pursuing, but I 
immediately changed direction and rode rapidly across the 
country to overtake them. About nightfall the horses of 
my escort gave out, but I pressed on with Secretary Reagan 
and my personal staff. It was a bright moonlight night ; 
and just before day, as the moon was sinking below the tree- 
tops, I met a party of men in the road, who answered my 
questions by saying they belonged to an Alabama regiment ; 
that they were coming from a village not far off, on their way 
homeward. Upon inquiry being made, they told me they 
had passed an encampment of wagons, with women and chil- 
dren, and asked me if we belonged to that party. Upon be- 
ing answered in the affirmative, they took their leave. After 
a short time I was hailed by a voice which I recognized as 
that of my private secretary, who informed me that the ma- 
rauders had been hanging around the camp, and that he and 
others were on post around it, and were expecting an assault 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 495 

as soon as the moon went down. A silly story had got 
abroad that it was a treasure-train, and the atiri sacra fames 
had probably instigated these marauders, as it subsequently 
stimulated General J. H. Wilson to send out a large cavalry 
force to capture the same train. For the protection of my 
family I travelled with them two or three days, when, believ- 
ing that they had passed out of the region of marauders, I 
determined to leave their encampment at nightfall, to execute 
my original purpose. My horse and those of my party proper 
were saddled preparatory to a start, when one of my staff, who 
had ridden into the neighboring village, returned and told me 
that he had heard that a marauding party intended to attack 
the camp that night. This decided me to wait long enough 
to see whether there was any truth in the rumor, which I 
supposed would be ascertained in a few hours. My horse 
remained saddled and my pistols in the holsters, and I lay 
down, fully dressed, to rest. Nothing occurred to rouse me 
until just before dawn, when my coachman, a free colored 
man, who faithfully clung to our fortunes, came and told me 
there was firing over the branch, just behind our encampment. 
I stepped out of my wife's tent and saw some horsemen, whom 
I immediately recognized as cavalry, deploying around the en- 
campment. I turned back and told rhy wife these were not 
the expected marauders, but regular troopers. She implored 
me to leave her at once. I hesitated, from unwillingness to 
do so, and lost a few precious moments before yielding to her 
importunity. My horse and arms were near the road on 
Avhich I expected to leave, and down which the cavalry ap- 
proached ; it was therefore impracticable to reach them. I 
was compelled to start in the opposite direction. As it was 
quite dark in the tent, I picked up what was supposed to be 
my " raglan " — a water-proof light overcoat without sleeves ; 
it was subsequently found to be my wife's, so very like my 
own as to be mistaken for it ; as I started, my wife thought- 
fully threw over my head and shoulders a shawl. I had gone 
perhaps fifteen or twenty yards when a trooper galloped up 
and ordered me to halt and surrender, to which I gave a de- 
fiant answer, and, dropping the shawl and raglan from my 
shoulders, advanced toward him ; he levelled his carbine at 



496 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

me, but I expected, if he fired, he would miss me, and my in- 
tention was in that event to put my hand under his foot, 
tumble him off on the other side, spring into his saddle, and 
attempt to escape. My wife, who had been watching, when 
she saw the soldier aim his carbine at me, ran forward and 
threw her arms around me. Success depended on instanta- 
neous action, and, recognizing that the opportunity had been 
lost, I turned back, and, the morning being damp and chilly, 
passed on to a fire beyond the tent. Our pursuers had taken 
different roads, and approached our camp from opposite di- 
rections ; they encountered each other and commenced firing, 
both supposing they had met our armed escort, and some cas- 
ualties resulted from their conflict with an imaginary body of 
Confederate troops. During the confusion, while attention 
was concentrated upon myself, except by those who were 
engaged in pillage, one of my aides, Colonel J. Taylor Wood, 
with Lieutenant Barnwell, walked off unobserved. His dar- 
ing exploits on the sea had made him an object of special hos- 
tility on the part of the Federal Government, and rendered 
it quite proper that he should avail himself of every possible 
means of escape. Colonel Pritchard went over to their bat- 
tle-field, and I did not see him for a long time, surely more 
than an hour after my capture. He subsequently claimed 
credit, in a conversation with me, for the forbearance shown 
by his men in not shooting me when I refused to surrender. 

Wilson and others have uttered many falsehoods in regard 
to my capture, which have been exposed in publications by 
persons there present — by Secretary Reagan, by the members 
of my personal staff, and by the colored coachman, Jim Jones, 
which must have been convincing to all who were not given 
over to believe a lie. For this reason I will postpone to some 
other time, and more appropriate place, any further notice of 
the story and its variations, all the spawn of a malignity that 
shamed the civilization of the age. We were, when prisoners, 
subjected to petty pillage, as described in the publications 
referred to, and in others; and to annoyances such as military 
gentlemen never commit or permit. 

On our way to Macon we received the proclamation of 
President Andrew Johnson offering a reward for my appre- 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 497 

hension as an accomplice in the assassination of the late 
President A. Lincoln. Some troops by the wayside had the 
proclamation, which was displayed with vociferous demon- 
strations of exultation over my capture. When we arrived 
at Macon I was conducted to the hotel where General Wilson 
had his quarters. A strong guard was in front of the en- 
trance, and, when I got down to pass in, it opened ranks, 
facing inward, and presented arms. 

A commodious room was assigned to myself and family. 
After dinner I had an interview with General Wilson. After 
some conversation in regard to our common acquaintance, he 
referred to the proclamation offering a reward for my capture. 
Taking it for granted that any significant remark of mine 
would be reported to his Government, and fearing that I 
might never have another opportunity to give my opinion 
of A. Johnson, I told him there was one man in the United 
States who knew that proclamation to be false. He re- 
marked that my expression indicated a particular person. I 
answered that it did, and the person was the one who signed 
it, for he at least knew that I preferred Lincoln to himself. 

Having several small children, one of them an infant, I 
expressed a preference for the easier route by water, sup- 
posing then, as he seemed to do, that I was to go to Wash- 
ington City. He manifested a courteous, obliging temper, 
and, either by the authority with which he was invested or 
by obtaining it from a higher power, my preference as to the 
route was accorded. I told him that some of the men with 
me were on parole, that they all were riding their own horses 
— private property — and that I would be glad they should be 
permitted to retain them ; and I have a distinct recollection 
that he promised me it should be done. But I have since 
learned that they were all deprived of their horses ; and some 
who were on parole, viz.. Major Moran, Captain Moody, 
Lieutenant Hathaway, Midshipman Howell, and Private 
Messec, who had not violated their obligations of parole, 
but had been captured because they were found voluntarily 
travelling with my family to protect them from marauders, 
were sent with me as prisoners of war, and all incarcerated, in 
disregard of the protection promised when they surrendered. 
32 



498 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

At Augusta we were put on a steamer, and there met Vice- 
President Stephens ; Honorable C. C. Clay, who had volun- 
tarily surrendered himself upon learning that he was included 
in the proclamation for the arrest of certain persons charged 
with complicity in the assassination of Mr. Lincoln ; General 
Wheeler, the distinguished cavalry officer, and his adjutant, 
General Ralls. My private secretary. Burton N. Harrison, 
had refused to be left behind, and, though they would not 
allow him to go in the carriage with me, he was resolved to 
follow my fortunes, as well from sentiment as the hope of 
being useful. His fidelity was rewarded by a long and rigor- 
ous imprisonment. At Port Royal we were transferred to a 
sea-going vessel, which, instead of being sent to Washington 
City, was brought to anchor at Hampton Roads. One by 
one all my companions in misfortune were sent away, we 
knew not whither, leaving on the vessel only Mr. Clay and 
his wife and myself and family. After some days' detention 
Clay and myself were removed to Fortress Monroe, and there 
incarcerated in separate cells. Not knowing that the Govern- 
ment was at war with women and children, I asked that my 
family might be permitted to leave the ship and go to Rich- 
mond or Washington City, or to some place where they had 
acquaintances ; but this was refused. I then requested that 
they might be permitted to go abroad on one of the vessels 
lying at the Roads. This also was denied. Finally, I was in- 
formed that they must return to Savannah on the vessel by 
which we came. This was an old transport ship, hardly sea- 
worthy. My last attempt was to get for them the privilege 
of stopping at Charleston, where they had many personal 
friends. This also was refused — why, I did not then know, 
have not learned since, and am unwilling to make a suppo- 
sition, as none could satisfactorily account for such an act 
of inhumanity. My daily experience as a prisoner shed no 
softer light on the transaction, but only served to intensify 
my extreme solicitude. Bitter tears have been shed by the 
gentle, and stern reproaches have been made by the magnan- 
imous, on account of the needless torture to which I was 
subjected, and the heavy fetters riveted upon me, while in a 
stone casemate and surrounded by a strong guard ; but all 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 499 

these were less excruciating than the mental agony my cap- 
tors were able to inflict. It was long before I was permitted 
to hear from my wife and children, and this, and things like 
this, was the power which education added to savage cruelty. 
But I do not propose now and here to enter upon the story of 
my imprisonment, or more than merely to refer to other mat- 
ters which concern me personally, as distinct from my connec- 
tion with the Confederacy. 



500 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 



CHAPTER LXXXVII. 

THE cost OF THE WAR; AND THE NORTHERN METHODS 

OF WARFARE. 

On April 25th, at Raleigh, N, C, General Johnston sur- 
rendered and disbanded his army. On May 4th General 
Richard Taylor capitulated, with the last of our forces east. 
On May 26th General E. Kirby Smith surrendered the last 
of our forces across the Mississippi. The military contest had 
ended. The war between the States was ended. 

The number of men brought into the field by the Govern- 
ment of the United States during the war was 2,678,967. 
In addition to these 86,724 paid a commutation. During 
the last eighteen months of the war the Federal Government 
made calls for 1,257,134, and they were furnished; 1,421,833 
men had been furnished from April 15, 1 861, to October 17, 
1863. Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee fur- 
nished to the armies of the United States 262,601 men — 
equal to 225,031 three-years' men. 

The public debt of the United States rose from $90,867,- 
828.68, in July, 1861, to $2,682,593,026.53, in July, 1865 — an 
increase, in four years, of $2,591,725,197.85. 

The manner in which our adversaries conducted the war I 
thus characterized in my message to Congress, on August 15, 
1862: 

" Rapine and wanton destruction of private property, war 
upon non-combatants, murder of captives, bloody threats to 
avenge the death of an invading soldiery by the slaughter of 
unarmed citizens, orders of banishment against peaceful farm- 
ers engaged in the cultivation of the soil, are some of the 
means used by our ruthless invaders to enforce the submis- 
sion of a free people to a foreign sway." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 5°! 

Again, in January, 1863, I said : 

" It is my painful duty to inform you of tlie renewed ex- 
amples of every conceivable atrocity committed by the armed 
forces of the United States at different points within the 
Confederacy, and which must stamp indelible infamy, not 
only on the perpetrators, but on their superiors, who, havmg 
the power to check these outrages on humanity, have not yet 
in a single instance, of which I am aware, inflicted punish- 
ment on the wrong-doers." , , , ■ 

The war which in its inception was waged for forcmg us 
back into the Union, having failed in accomplishing that pur- 
pose, passed into a second stage, in which it was attempted to 
conquer and rule our States as dependent provmces. De- 
feated in this design, our adversaries entered upon another, 
which could have no other purpose than revenge and plunder 
of private property. In May, .S64, it was strll charaeterued 
by'the barbarism with which it ^ad been prev.ousty con- 
ducted. Aged men, helpless women and children, appealed m 
vain to the humanity which should be insp.red by the.r con- 
dition, for immunity from arrest, incarceration, or banishment 
tom^heir homes. Plunder and devastation o the property 
ofTon-combatants, destruction of private dwellings and even 
o educes devoted to the worship of God ; expeditions _or- 
"anized for the sole purpose of sacking cities, consignmg 
fhem to the flames, killing the unarmed inhabitants, and in- 
f^ctTng horrible outrages on women and children were some 
of the constantly recurring atrocities of the 'nvader 

One sin-le illustration, and by no means the worst out o 
thous ^dl of similar testimonies, must suffice owing to our 

-rl^frj'stSlio'lioSXferTegan his re- 
trea?frol" before Lynchbuig down the Shenandoah V^Uey 
L eutenant-General Early, who f°"°-VtheTte 
scribes the destruction '-^^'-^f^j" f 'trwomen and 
.. Houses had been turned, and ^ple 



502 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

except that on their backs. Ladies' trunks had been rifled, 
and their dresses torn to pieces in mere wantonness. Even 
the negro girls had lost their little finery. At Lexington he 
had burned the Military Institute, with all its contents, in- 
cluding its library and scientific apparatus. Washington Col- 
lege had been plundered, and the statue of Washington 
stolen. The residence of ex-Governor Letcher at that place 
had been burned by orders, and but a few minutes given Mrs. 
Letcher and her family to leave the house. In the county a 
most excellent Christian gentleman, a Mr. Creigh, had been 
hung, because, on a former occasion, he had killed a straggling 
and marauding Federal soldier while in the act of insulting 
and outraging the ladies of his family." 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 503 



CHAPTER LXXXVIIl. 

RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNION BY FORCE. 

With the capture of the capital, the dispersion of the 
civil authorities, the surrender of the armies in the field, and 
the arrest of the President, the Confederate States of Amer- 
ica disappeared as an independent power, and the States of 
which it was composed, yielding to the force of overwhelmmg 
numbers, were forced to rejoin the Union from which, four 
years before, they had one by one withdrawn. Their history 
henceforth became a part of the history of the United States 
With the cessation of all hostilities against the power of 
the Government of the United States nothing remained to 
be done but for the sovereigns, the people of each State, to 
assert their authority and to restore order. If the principle 
of the sovereignty of the people-the corner-stone of our polit- 
ical institutions-had survived and was still in force it was 
necessary only that the people of each State should recon- 
sider and revoke their ordinances of secession, and again rec- 
ognize the Constitution of the United States as the supreme 
law of the land. This simple process would have placed the 
Union on its original basis, and have restored what had ceased 
to exist-the Union by consent. Unfortunately such ^vas 
not the intention of the conqueror. The union of free wills 
and brotherly hearts, under a compact ordained by the peo- 
ple, was not his object. Henceforth there was to be estab- 
lished a Union by force. Sovereignty was to pass from the 
people to the Government of the United States, and to be 
upheld by those who had furnished the money and the sol- 

diers for the war. ^ *. -,„^ ^^ 

Standing defenceless, stripped of their property, and ex- 
posed, as it was asserted, to the penalties of msurrection on 



504 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE 

the one hand, and that of treason on the other, the people 
of the late Confederate States were disfranchised; not their 
official representatives only, but large and influential classes ; 
unconstitutional oaths were required of them before they 
could regain their civil rights ; the negro population was in- 
vested with the right to vote, whereby governments were es- 
tablished in many of the States Avhich were officered exclusively 
by blacks and by aliens elected to power by negro votes — gov- 
ernments whose sole purpose seemed to be to plunder and 
oppress the people under the forms of law, and the record of 
whose misrule will forever form one of the most discreditable 
chapters in the history of the country. But it would require 
a separate volume to narrate the oppressions inflicted on the 
people of the South after the cessation of hostilities ; and my 
task is done. 



My object in this work has been to prove by historical 
authority that each of the States, as sovereign parties to the 
compact of Union, had the reserved power to secede from it 
whenever it was found not to answer the ends for which it 
was established. If this has been done, it follows that the 
war, on the part of the Government of the United States, was 
a war ©f- aggression and usurpation ; and on the part of the 
South was for the defence of an inherent and unalienable 
right. 

My next purpose was to show, by the gallantry and devo- 
tion of the Southern people in their unequal struggle, how 
thorough was their conviction of the justice of their cause ; 
that by their humanity to the wounded and captives they 
proved themselves the worthy descendants of chivalric sires, 
and fit to be free ; and that, in every case, as when our army 
invaded Pennsylvania, by their respect for private rights, 
their morality and observance of the laws of civilized war, 
they were entitled to the confidence and regard of mankind. 

In asserting the right of secession, it has not been my wish 
to incite to its exercise. I recognize the fact that the war 
showed it to be impracticable; but this did not prove it to be 
wrong ; and now that it may not be again attempted, and that 

^ if^ RD-94 



CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 505 

the Union may promote the general welfare, it is needful that 
the truth, the whole truth, should be known, so that crimina- 
tion and recrimination may forever cease ; and then, on the 
basis of fraternity and faithful regard for the rights of the 
States, there may be written on the arch of the Union, Esto 
perpctua. 



THE END. 



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